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As parts of England look set to go into tighter Covid-19 restrictions, I'm following a meeting looking at the picture in Somerset.

It shows the stark differences in how far and fast the virus is spreading in different parts of the country...

The total number of Covid-19 cases recorded in Somerset (the county council area) has risen above 2,000 this week and currently stands at 2,006

The number of people being admitted to Somerset's hospitals because of Covid-19 is "incredibly low", says the Chief Exec of the Clinical Commissioning Group.

@SomersetDPH says as of yesterday, there were 6 confirmed cases at Musgrove Park in Taunton, 1 in Yeovil & 3 in Weston

There have been no Covid-related deaths recorded in Somerset in any setting in the most recent week’s figures. In fact, there have been no Covid deaths in any of Somerset hospitals for several months.

The 7-day infection rate for Somerset (from the latest full week of data) stands at 36.5 per 100,000 of population.

For comparison – yesterday the England average was more than 150/100k, and the area with the highest rate in England was Nottingham at 892/100k.

The rates of infection vary within Somerset with some districts higher than others Somerset West and Taunton has the highest rate of more than 50 per 100k.

Mendip has a lower rate and South Somerset and Sedgemoor have the lowest.

Public health officials say they're currently most concerned about Taunton and Minehead because they have higher levels of prevalence – and parts of the county which border Devon have higher rates of infection, so there *could* be some "leakage" across the border.

Around a quarter of Somerset's cases are university students BUT they're counted for the area where they are registered with a GP.

So - if students from Somerset have gone to uni elsewhere, and not re-registered with a GP there, they still show up in Somerset's figures

The NHS Test & Trace data error a few weeks ago only had a "fairly minimal" impact on Somerset's Covid case numbers.

Public health bosses say they had confirmation that 41 cases in Somerset were part of that national problem.

Asked whether a recent funfair held in Minehead led to an increase in cases/rates in the town, @SomersetDPH says: "we haven’t seem evidence of that Fair causing a lot of transmission. Most transmission in West Somerset is household transmission."

Public health officials are keen to stress that Somerset's lower figures/infection rates do not mean people here should be complacent.

@SomersetDPH Trudi Grant says "everybody has a part to play" in reducing transmission of the virus.

For anyone who wants up to date information about Covid-19 & Somerset, have a look at this dashboard from @SomersetCouncil

It's updated daily and has plenty more detail than I can summarise in tweets!

https://somersetcc.sharepoint.com/sites/SCCPublic/Health/Forms/AllItems.aspx?id=%2Fsites%2FSCCPublic%2FHealth%2FCOVID%2D19%20Dashboard%2015%20October%202020%2Epdf&parent=%2Fsites%2FSCCPublic%2FHealth&p=true&originalPath=aHR0cHM6Ly9zb21lcnNldGNjLnNoYXJlcG9pbnQuY29tLzpiOi9zL1NDQ1B1YmxpYy9FWTFGNkdNWU1xVkdpTmtxZV8xd21GOEIxc085VmZzLWIwVGFXM0VNdGZ6eUJ3P3J0aW1lPTdDaENLUU54MkVn