England’s Covid-free zones: 12 local authority areas that are home to 2.4m people report ZERO infections in last week while London has just 94 cases
- In mid-April most of 12 areas had 50-100 cases a week, showing huge decrease
- Torbay has had no cases for 4 weeks and Rutland has had no cases for 2 weeks
- Five of 12 areas reporting zero cases between June 4 and June 10 are in London
England’s Covid-free zones have been revealed as 12 local authority areas that are home to 2.4million people have reported zero infections in the last week – and London now has just 94 cases.
In mid-April most of the 12 areas had 50-100 cases a week, showing a huge decrease in the presence of the virus.
Two thirds of council areas with a population of 32 million are now seeing an average of one case a day or fewer, according to the data from Public Health England.
Torbay in Devon has had no cases for the past four weeks, the lowest level in the country, and Rutland has had no cases for two weeks.
This map shows the 12 local authorities in England that have reported no new virus cases in the week from June 4 to June 10
Five of the 12 areas reporting zero cases between June 4 and June 10 are London boroughs. This is down from a peak of 4,824 cases between April 2 and April 8.
With certain areas of the country now seemingly virus free, there will be renewed interest in local easing of lockdown measures.
Paul Hunter, of the University of East Anglia, told The Times: ‘I would expect to see, provided the fall continues, more local authorities with no cases next week.’
He added that although some of the 12 areas may have undetected clusters, he thinks the longer it goes on that places record no cases, the more confident we can be that the virus has been eradicated in certain areas.
Birmingham reported 32 cases in the most recent seven-day period, down from 620 in the last week of March.
Britain’s coronavirus death toll rose by 202 yesterday in the lowest Friday jump in 12 weeks, taking the UK’s total victims to 41,481. Pictured: intensive care at Frimley Park Hospital in Surrey
However, the reproduction rate of the coronavirus could be as high as 1.1 in the South West of England, officials warned yesterday meaning the virus is on the brink of surging out of control in the rural region.
Officials at the Government Office of Science, which is headed by Sir Patrick Vallance, confirmed that the R rate in the South West is now somewhere between 0.8 and 1.1, which is a higher estimate than any other part of the UK.
The R rate for Britain as a whole, however, has not changed in the past week and remains between 0.7 and 0.9.
The South West is the only region which could have a value higher than one, the dreaded point at which each infected patient starts to infect more than one other person and an outbreak starts to grow again.
Last week the region’s estimate was 0.8-1.0, showing it has risen in the past seven days.
East of England currently has the lowest estimate, with its 0.7-0.9 making it the only region where the figure is definitely below 1.
Britain’s coronavirus death toll rose by 202 yesterday in the lowest Friday jump in 12 weeks, taking the UK’s total victims to 41,481.
The government will not vary the lifting of coronavirus lockdown by region, despite the R infection rate varying widely in different parts of the UK, the business minister confirmed last month.
Speaking at a Downing Street press conference, Alok Sharma said the government would be sticking with its national approach to the lockdown.