By Rachael Grealish

Over 200,000 people have received a COVID-19 vaccine in Cumbria as cases continue to fall throughout the county, the latest figures show.

According to statistics released today, Thursday March 25, 50 percent (around 208,800 as of March 14) of the county’s adult population have received their first dose of vaccine.

Over 90 percent of the over 65s have now received either a dose of the Pfizer or Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine.

Allerdale, Barrow and South Lakeland have now vaccinated 50 percent of their boroughs adults, while Copeland, Carlisle and Eden are just short at 46 percent, 48 percent and 46 percent of adults vaccinated respectively.

Coronavirus cases decreased by 17 percent in the last week as there were 114 new cases in Cumbria – a decrease of from 138 cases in the previous week.

Barrow-in-Furness joined Allerdale in having the greatest numbers of new cases as both had 29 new cases.

New cases in Barrow actually increased by 61 percent which was the greatest percentage increase. The lowest was in Copeland as cases dropped by 75 percent.

New cases also increased in Eden and South Lakeland (22 percent and 19 percent respectively), however, it should be noted that numerically these increases were small and rates in Eden and South Lakeland remain below the county average.

Barrow-in-Furness also replaced Allerdale in having the highest rate of new cases (43 new cases per 100k population), but throughout the county rates were below both the national and regional average rates (55 and 69 new cases per 100k population).

The 25-34 age group accounted for the greatest number of new cases in Cumbria, followed by the 55-64 and 35-44 age groups.

The only age groups to experience increases in new cases from the previous week were the 25-34 and 55-64 age groups and there were zero new cases seen in the 85+ age group.

Unfortunately, a further 12 people were registered to have a COVID-19 related death, up to March 12.

However, this is a 42.8 percent decrease from the 21 registered deaths the previous week.

Cumbrian hospitals are still not out of the woods yet as the number of new patients admitted with COVID-19 Positive status increased by 100 percent from the previous week in University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust (UHMB) – although this was from 8 to 16 patients.

However, the number of new patients admitted with COVID-19 Positive status decreased from the previous week in North Cumbria Integrated Care (NCIC) by 63 percent.

The average number of patients with COVID-19 in beds decreased from the previous week in both NCIC and UHMB by 61 percent and 32 percent respectively.

Although youngsters have been back at school for two weeks numbers of incidents or positive cases remain relatively low in education settings and, compared to the previous week, they have fallen slightly.

The full statistics can be viewed here.