How Covid 19 has affected Leeds in numbers

The Covid-19 pandemic has affected our lives in a multitude of ways. With the vaccine soon to be rolled out to millions of people across the country, it looks as if we have finally reached the end of this long year. Leeds Now had the opportunity to analyse data on how Covid-19 has affected Leeds and its people. Here is what we found:

Daily cases and deaths

The daily figures in Leeds from 01/01/2020 to 25/11/2020; created by Emmie Penkett

The figures show that Leeds has limited deaths in comparison to cases. the data also shows that Leeds had more cases before the second lockdown in comparison to the fist lockdown. The peak for cases in lockdown 1 reached 108 on the 22nd of April, whereas before the second lockdown cases peaked to 693 on the 1st of October.

Job losses

A graph showing the male and female job losses in Leeds; created by Isobel Howard

Unemployment rose sharply in Leeds with 22,250 men and 13,010 women filling for unemployment benefits in May. These figures have remained similar up to October

With an increase of 6% on unemployment across both women and men from December 2020, the figures have spiked at its highest in September. There could be another spike in the new year with popular retailers such as Arcadia shutting the doors of many of their stores across the country.

Crime

Graph showing the difference in crime rate between violence and sexual offences compared to theft from the person: created by Erin Rofe-Turner

Crime statistics in Leeds have fallen slightly due to lockdowns, but as a result of lockdown they appear to rise sightly once lockdown ends. There is a lot more violence and sexual assault crimes compared to theft from a person crimes. In April there were 2074 violent or sexual offences compared to 32 thefts. However, these are only crimes reported to the police and the real figure could be much greater.

A pie chart showing crime in Leeds: created by Erin Rofe-Turner

Our data also showed that overall there were more violent and sexual offences overall, followed by anti-social behaviour.

Health

A graph showing Covid-19 cases, Covid-19 related deaths, all deaths and A&E admissions: Created by Emmie Penkett

Covid-19 related death statistics give the clearest indication of deaths within Leeds as these are deaths registered at ONS ( Office of National Statistics) from the death certificates where covid is shown as the cause.

If you compare the “All Deaths” and “Covid-19 related deaths” it clearly shows a spike in April 2020 where it peaked at 1080 for “All Deaths” and 295 for ” Covid-19 related Deaths” which was the first wave whilst entering the first lockdown . There may well be a similar spike over the coming months due to the release of lockdown over Christmas period but due to the delay in reporting deaths with the way they are currently collected we do not have access to this data.

Its is believed that Covid-19 was around prior to March 2020 although no recordings of data or tests were carried out.

Travel and transport

By Alyssa Keene

A graph to show traffic on the roads: created by Isobel Howard and Finlay

Transport across Leeds is known for being extremely busy in rush hour and weekend timetables. In a city such as Leeds transportation between places is vital however, in lockdown non-essential travel meant people often avoided travelling long distance. You can see in March that it decreased to “113,101” when people abided by the rules but then shot back up to “204,995” once people started to go back to work in offices and other work stations.

Events

Football celebrations that spiked Covid-19

By Alyssa Keene

The joyous occasion was not without consequence however, as Coronavirus cases reached double figures in the city in the days following the celebration.

By Dan Flynn

After the celebrations of the fans who support Leeds United Football Club commenced little did they know the spike in Covid-19 would double in such a short space of time. From the start of July 2020 Covid cases were recorded at “5” people yet later that month the records show over time it had risen to “30” in just under one month. This was just one event in Leeds that contributed to the spike, in the ongoing months this continued to increase and deaths and cases were on a regular basis.