The South Hams has seen three new cases of COVID-19 this week, according to official Government figures.

There has been a small rise in the number of coronavirus cases confirmed across Devon and Cornwall as a whole.

Government statistics show that 34 new cases have been confirmed across the region in the past seven days, compared to 32 new cases confirmed last week.

It means that an average of 4.85 rather than 4.57 cases a day are being confirmed across the two counties, with 24 of the 34 cases having a specimen date having a specimen date from August 7 to August 13.

Across the Devon County Council area, of the 12 cases, three were in East Devon, four in Exeter, one in Mid Devon, three in the South Hams, and one in West Devon. No new cases were confirmed this week in North Devon, Torridge or Teignbridge.

By specimen date, the most recent case in Cornwall and Plymouth was from August 11, with Exeter, East Devon, Mid Devon and West Devon from August 10, the South Hams from August 9, Torbay from August 8, in Torridge from August 3, July 27 for North and July 25 for Teignbridge. 

Across the whole of the South West, 175 cases have so far been confirmed for the previous seven-day period, up from 111.

The number of people in hospital with COVID-19 in the South West has risen slightly to 18, having been 17 last Friday, and from 15 as of yesterday, but not since July 29 has there being anyone in intensive care with COVID-19, with the last death in a hospital in Devon and Cornwall occurring on June 29.

The R Rate for the South West is now being estimated as between 0.8 and 1.0, down from 0.8 to 1.1 as of last week, and is no longer the joint highest in the country, but it covers a large geographical area and low case numbers mean the estimates is insufficiently robust to inform policy decisions.

The South Hams is now seventh among districts in the country in overall case rates, out of 369 regions. In total, the area has seen 101 cases.

The data is now shown by the date the specimen was taken from the person being tested and while it gives a useful analysis of the progression of cases over time, it does mean that the latest days’ figures may be incomplete.

Cases received from laboratories by 12.30am are included in the counts published that day. While there may have been new cases of coronavirus confirmed or people having tested positive, those test results either yet to reach PHE for adding to the dataset or were not received in time for the latest daily figures to be published.