Southwark’s COVID-19 weekly rate dropped by nearly 40 per cent in the seven days up to March 3 as hopes the lockdown easing will stay on track.
Southwark recorded 96 cases that week, a drop of 62 compared to the week before – or 39.2 per cent.
The biggest fall was seen in Haringey, where cases were down by 52.7 per cent, with the smallest in Waltham Forest, which saw infections fall by 16.3 per cent.
Twenty-two of London’s 32 boroughs recorded a drop of at least a third in new COVID-19 cases that week.
The good news came as schools returned on Monday with lateral flow testing in place, and Guy’s Hospital celebrated administering its 100,000th jab with a ‘tunnel of light’ art installation.
Despite the drop in infections, there are still concerns that the most vulnerable groups are less likely to take up the offer of vaccines, or have been unable to receive them due to being housebound.
As the News reported last week, housebound OAPs in the borough had only just been told they could expect to be contacted this week to find out about their future vaccinations – with no pledges given by the South East London Clinical Commissioning Group on when these would be completed.
London is still languishing behind the rest of the UK on vaccine takeup. Overall, 85 per cent of the over 70s in London have had jabs, compared to 97 per cent nationwide.
This figure has barely risen in the last few weeks. Yet extra funding to boost the rollout has not been forthcoming from central government.
A new poll from YouGov has shown that one in ten Britons from black or other ethnic minority backgrounds would refuse to have the vaccine, with 45 per cent of them saying there was a lack of information about the vaccine.