More people are likely to be admitted to hospital with Covid over the next couple of weeks as case rates surge, a local public health boss has warned.

Sara Blackmore, public health director for South Gloucestershire Council, said the case rate in the local authority area had jumped by 80 per cent in the past week, following a 339 per cent increase the week before.

Some 230 new cases in the past seven days took the rate for that period to 81 cases per 100,000 people, she told local health leaders yesterday (Tuesday, June 22). 

Most of the new cases are in younger people aged 10 to 24, who are largely unvaccinated, she told members of South Gloucestershire’s health and wellbeing board.

People being hospitalised tend to be younger, have less severe disease, and are discharged more quickly, she said.

There are “very few” hospitalisations, but this is likely to change over the coming weeks, Ms Blackmore said.

“We will see a lag in the data, so most likely – as we’ve started to see our rates increase in the last week – in the next couple of weeks, we may well see an increase in hospitalisations locally,” she said

“Clearly that mirrors what’s happening nationally and is something for us to keep a close eye on.”

There are currently four people with Covid at Southmead Hospital, she said.

No deaths have been reported in the last seven days.

South Gloucestershire has revised its Local Outbreak Management Plan in response to the recent rise in Covid cases, identified as the start of a third wave.

Ms Blackmore said the response was to address the increase in numbers rather than any “variants of concern”, in line with the national response.

She said the current focus is on encouraging over 18s to get a Covid vaccine and anyone who has had their first jab to get a second dose.

Uptake of Covid vaccines in South Gloucestershire has been “really good” so far, she added. 

NHS England data up to June 13 show 65 per cent of adults in the district have had their first dose and 47 per cent have had two doses.

Chair of the health and wellbeing board, Conservative councillor Ben Stokes, said the lower rates of hospitalisation and death in the third wave so far reinforced the success of the vaccination programme.

He noted that health secretary Matt Hancock has suggested booster doses of the vaccine  will be rolled out through pharmacies rather than GP practices in a programme planned for  autumn.

This approach would free up GPs to “get on with their core business”, Cllr Stokes said.

Information about where you can get a Covid test in South Gloucestershire is available here