Age gap widens as COVID infections spike in Lincolnshire

The gap between the young and old has widened as infection rates have increased across Lincolnshire.

According to the latest data, the infection rates in England continue to rise, however, some areas of Lincolnshire are not increasing at the same rate as others.

Boston and Lincoln remain among the highest infection rates in the county, and both have moved up the rankings – with Boston moving from 197th highest to 143rd, while Lincoln has moved from 188th to 168th in England.

They are joined by West Lindsey and South Kesteven in rising up the table.

However, three of the county’s districts, West Lindsey, North Kesteven and South Holland, while still seeing rising infection rates, have actually dropped in the national rankings as other areas went up.

Lincolnshire’s coronavirus cases up to July 5.

Lincolnshire County Council’s assistant director of public health Andy Fox said the rise was now being “driven by the younger age ranges,” with older people much less likely to be infected.

However, he said that proves the vaccine programme was doing its job, and added that younger people were still more likely to be asymptomatic or have milder symptoms.

“In one sense, it’s important to think what would rates be doing now if we didn’t have such a good vaccine programme, and it would be a really terrifying situation, and hospitals would be overwhelmed.

“So the fact that we’ve seen such low rates in over 60s is actually really encouraging in that sense, we’re not seeing hospitalisations increase in Lincolnshire, we’ve not seen deaths in Lincolnshire recently. That’s really good — so let’s be cautious and try to keep it that way.”

Greater Lincolnshire’s infection rates from June 14 to July 5. | Data: Gov UK / Table: Daniel Jaines for The Lincolnite

According to the government data on ages, which goes to June 30, the infection rate in the county’s over 60s was 17 per 100,000 population, while under 60s as a whole was at 165.2 per 100k.

A more detailed heat map shows the highest rates among the 20-24 year olds with a rolling rate of 538.8 per 100,000, and 15-19 year olds with a rate of 427.1 per 100k.

Those aged 10-14, have a rate of 279.3, however, 5-9 and 0-4 year olds show significant drop-offs to 76.1 and 33.3 per 100k population respectively.

Likewise, there is a decrease in rates for those aged 25-29 to 192.3, then 98.2 for those aged 30-34 and 96.9 for ages 35-39.

At the top end of the scale, the lowest rolling rates are those aged over 90 have had sat at 0 since June 22, while those aged 80-84 have a rolling rate of 4.1.

A heatmap showing the difference in infection rates among the various age brackets since the beginning of the pandemic.

According to the latest vaccine data released last week, 85% of Lincolnshire adults have now had their first jab.

The figures, from the NHS, show that 53.6% of 18-24 year olds have received their first dose of vaccine, well above the national average of 47.9%.

Meanwhile 66.7% of 25-29 year olds have had their initial jab compared to a national average of 60.9%.

Age groups which were below the national average included the 45-49 year olds and the 60-74 year olds, however the latter were all in the 90-100% range.

When it comes to second doses, nearly 60% of 40-44 year olds have now been double-jabbed, rising to 67% for 45-49 year olds, 88.4% for 50-54 year olds and above 90% for the rest of the older age brackets.