There have been almost 75,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Staffordshire since the pandemic began – and 500 people have been fined for flouting rules brought in to control the spread of the virus.

Health bosses have also seen a rise in obesity rates since the start of the pandemic in early 2020 as residents faced more sedentary lives during the national lockdown periods. Facilities such as gyms and leisure centres were forced to close for several months, while outdoor exercise and sport sessions were restricted by limits on the number of people who could meet up.

Staffordshire Police have issued 500 fixed penalty notices to residents, while three businesses have been issued with directions by Staffordshire County Council to curtail or limit activities because of threat to public health, a meeting heard.

The impact of the pandemic on the county has been detailed by Dr Richard Harling, Director of Health and Care at Staffordshire County Council, in his annual report which is due to be published this autumn. He presented the initial findings to members of the Staffordshire Health and Wellbeing Board on Thursday (September 2).

He said: "So far in Staffordshire we have had just under 75,000 cases and that's a cumulative case rate – the case rate since the start of the pandemic – of about 8,500 cases per 100,000 population.

"There is an issue with counting – the first wave was probably vastly under-remunerated and that is because at the time the country did not have well-developed diagnostic laboratory facilities. Probably something like one in 10 or 20 cases was actually confirmed.

"During the second wave last winter and the third wave at the moment laboratory capacity is much greater and we are counting a much higher proportion of cases. But there will still be a considerable number that are undiagnosed as people are relatively asymptomatic. The cases we know about are probably only the tip of the iceberg of all the cases that are out there.

"During the first wave in March/April 2020 there was quite a considerable spike of deaths. There are three ways deaths get counted (including) deaths within 28 days of a Covid diagnosis (and) deaths where Covid has been recorded on the death certificate.

"Both of those have problems in that they rely on Covid being diagnosed; on the other hand they may overestimate the impact of the pandemic because some people will die with Covid rather than of Covid. The metric we tend to look at is the excess number of deaths compared to the average for the pre-pandemic period."

Figures presented to Thursday's meeting revealed that of July 23 there had been 2,356 deaths within 28 days of a Covid-19 diagnosis. Covid-19 was recorded on the death certificate of 2,723 people and there were 1,908 excess deaths compared to the average for the previous five years.

The area is currently not seeing excess deaths however, Dr Harling said, which was largely due to the effects of the Covid vaccination programme.

He added "There is quite a lot of Covid around at the moment – the case rate is around 350 per 100,000 (people) in the last seven days and that has been creeping up slowly over the last few weeks.

"The number of hospitalisations is relatively low, certainly a lot lower than it was in January and February at the peak of the second wave. However that is also creeping up and the NHS and social care are facing quite considerable pressure at the moment from a combination of Covid-related and non-Covid-related illness.

"I think it remains important for the public to be aware the virus is still out there and does still pose a threat and to take sensible precautions to prevent the spread of infection. That means keeping your distance from one another where you can, wearing face coverings in crowded indoor places and making sure you maintain good hand hygiene wherever possible.

"It is really important to remember that as well as the direct impact of Covid – the infections, hospitalisations and deaths – the pandemic has also had a wider impact. That is due to the impact of the virus but also control measures.

"Prolonged isolation we now know is very bad for people. We've had a rise in mental health problems during the pandemic period and that is especially marked in children and young people.

"We're pretty confident there has been a rise in obesity because people have been sedentary during long periods of lockdown. We know children have had delays to education which they are going to have to catch up at some point.

"We know the NHS routine business has been very severely impacted so we are now facing some quite considerable waiting lists for routine hospital treatments and there are also some concerns about GP access.

"Care homes have also been severely affected. Residents' quality of life has been affected by infection prevention control measures and isolations and care homes have faced increased costs and had existing staff shortages exacerbated."

Dr Harling's last annual report, produced in 2019 before the global pandemic, focused on the use of digital technology in health and wellbeing.

At the time Staffordshire NHS was asked to ensure GP telemedicine – consultation and diagnosis of patients via phone or online services without the need for a physical visit to a doctors' surgery – was "thoroughly evaluated" as it was rolled out in the county.

A report to Thursday's meeting said: "In 2019 nobody could have predicted the mass adoption of digital technology, or how a global pandemic could accelerate that shift."