Report Reveals Number in Chiswick Who Have Had Covid-19

Over 2,000 people in W4 have tested positive since start of pandemic

Mobile testing centre in Sainsbury's car park

A new report has published more details on the impact of Covid-19 in Chiswick showing the total number of people testing positive for the disease since the start of the pandemic.

Up to 29 January, 1699 people caught the virus in the three Chiswick council wards in Hounslow borough. The number of people infected in Southfield ward which encompasses the part of Chiswick in Ealing borough will bring the total to over 2.000 for the W4 post code area.

Chiswick Riverside ward has had 526 infections, Chiswick Homefields 577 and Turnham Green 596. These are the three lowest numbers for positive tests across Hounslow borough. The highest is Hounslow Central with 1,589.

The number of cases in the borough rocketed by 158% between 20 December 2020 and 29 January 2021 from 8,373 to 21,643.

The report, which was presented to the borough’s Health and Wellbeing Board which met on 2 February looks at demographic factors in the spread of the disease and how they have led to divergent infection rates across the borough. It find links with housing density, the prevalence of multi-generational housing and economic deprivation. In terms of ethnicity there was a high prevalence of the disease in the Asian community.

Only 15% of those infected are over 60 with the largest proportion catching the disease in the 31-49 age group.

Borough mortality figures show that the death toll has been the largest in the Asian community with 91 fatalities out of 209 up to the end of November. The figures show that the black population of the borough have been hardest hit proportionately by Covid-19 deaths among younger people with no underlying health conditions with 9 out of the 15 people who died in that category.

Source: Hounslow Council

Source: Hounslow Council

Although weekly infection rates have declined from peak levels, Hounslow remains a hot spot for the virus in London with an infection rate of 432 per 100,000 in the week to 30 January second only to Ealing.

Hounslow Borough has set up rapid testing sites for people without Covid-19 symptoms at three sites in the borough which are open every day from 8am-4pm at Hounslow House, Heston Library and Isleworth Library. The nearest test centre for Chiswick residents is the one provided by Ealing Council at Acton Library. A mobile test facility was operating from Sainsbury’s car park in Chiswick this Friday (5 February) without being publicised in advance by Hounslow Council. It is not known if this will be returning and the council is suggesting following its Twitter account to get notified.

Concerns that Chiswick’s low infection rate is just a function of the lack of local testing facilities have been dismissed. A local GP said of the report, “There is lots of new information in this document, some of it quite alarming. There have been some desperately tragic cases here in Chiswick but we have got off relatively lightly. Although the report gives a very good explanation of the advantages this area has that explain the relatively low rates, I think generally good observance of the rules has been hugely helpful in W4.

“I don’t think lower availability of testing explains the lower rate of infections. The proportion of positive tests of those taken allows you to rule this out as a factor.”

The latest weekly infection rates published by the ONS show a sharp fall across the Chiswick area with the number of cases more than halving in most districts in the week to 1 February. The Chiswick South West area only had 8 positive tests a fall of 57.9% to an infection rate per 100,000 of 95.3. The highest rate of infection is in the Bedford Park area currently but this has also fallen substantially from peaks and is only marginally above other areas.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) divide the country into ‘Middle Super Output Areas’ (MSOAs) of roughly equal population size and these are used in the publication of infections at a local level.

Source: ONS

Map showing the areas from the table above

February 14, 2021