An interactive map breaking down new coronavirus cases by postcode has pinpointed exactly where mini outbreaks flared up across England last week.
The map, based on Public Health England testing data, is being used to help health chiefs target specific areas pf the country with new social distancing measures, rather than using blunt, economically-damaging lockdowns on entire cities.
Data shows that Shearbridge, a neighbourhood in the south west of Bradford, near the city’s university, was the worst-hit place in the entire country last week, recording 32 cases in the week ending July 26.
The next four areas with the highest transmission rates were all in the north of England, where swathes of Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Yorkshire saw lockdown measures reintroduced last week amid climbing cases.
Bastwell, in Blackburn, saw 23 new infections in the space of a week while Alexandra Park, in Oldham, recorded 22. Waddleworth and Newbold Brow, in Rochdale, had 21 while Pellon East in Halifax saw 20.
There were also spikes seen across Leicester, despite the city being under stricter rules than the rest of England for nearly a month. Belgrave North West recorded 19 new cases, while Highfields South saw 16, Spinning Hill Road 18, Crown Hills 15 and North Evington and Rowlatts Hill 14.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said there are still far too many cases in Leicester for restrictions to be lifted.
In other coronavirus developments in Britain today:
- The mayor of an upmarket coastal town dubbed ‘Chelsea-on-Sea’ urged visitors to ‘show a bit of respect’ and follow social distancing rules after the normal population surged by 1,000 per cent amid a staycation boom;
- Pizza Express became the latest business to be devastated by coronavirus as it revealed it could shut 67 of its UK restaurants with up to 1,100 jobs at risk;
- The cost of furloughing almost 10million British workers rose by more than £2billion in the last week of July to £33.8billion, figures revealed;
- Ministers admitted the struggling coronavirus contact tracing system must improve — but insisted schools will reopen in September despite fears of a catastrophic second peak;
- Eighty per cent of new Covid-19 cases Trafford — a badly-hit borough of Greater Manchester — are among white people, according to a local official who fears a ‘complacent white middle class’.
Leicester will stay sealed off and the city’s 330,000 residents must still avoid non-essential travel out of the area, stick rigorously to social distancing rules and not enter other people’s homes.
Coronavirus infections have risen in some areas such as Manchester and mayor Andy Burnham has called for a return to shielding after a major incident was declared in the area.
However, the number of coronavirus deaths across England and Wales has fallen.
There were 217 Covid-19 deaths registered across the two nations in the week ending July 24 — 2.4 per cent of all deaths in that time period. This is a 26.4 per cent fall from the previous week, when there were 295 deaths where coronavirus was mentioned on the death certificate.
The last time deaths involving coronavirus were so low was in the week ending March 20, before lockdown, when there were 103 deaths. For comparison, more than 1,000 people died every day in the UK for 22 consecutive days during the height of the crisis in April.
Despite deaths continuing to fall, there is growing concern that a Covid-19 resurgence is beginning to emerge in the UK because of an uptick in cases. Nearly 1,000 people were diagnosed with the virus in the UK yesterday, the highest number in six weeks.
But due to the roughly three-week time period it takes for a patient to fall seriously ill and pass away, deaths might not trickle into the data for several weeks yet. Figures also show only 100 patients are still being hospitalised each day, a rate which has barely changed over the past fortnight.
England and Wales are experiencing fewer deaths than would normally be expected at this time for the sixth week in a row, the ONS said.
The ONS report also showed that the overall number of confirmed or suspected victims stands at around 56,000. Department of Health officials say the laboratory-confirmed death toll — which only includes victims who have tested positive for the disease — is 46,210.
Britain today announced seven more coronavirus deaths in the preliminary toll — taking the total number of victims to 46,217
There were 217 deaths registered in the week ending July 24 involving Covid-19 – accounting for 2.4 per cent of all deaths
Pressure had been mounting on the Government to be more transparent about rolling Covid-19 data in local areas, to prevent other towns and cities being hit by local lockdowns.
It was accused of not sharing the data quickly enough with public health officials in Leicester, which was forced to revert to lockdown on June after a spike in cases.
Public health professionals across each region will now be given positive test data and contact tracing figures every day.
The public are able to access the interactive map themselves to gain insight into Covid-19 cases near their home. But it is not possible to identify individuals by name and address.
Leicester mayor Sir Peter Soulsby has been fiercely critical of the ‘blanket’ restrictions placed on the whole city — which still has the highest infection rate in the country.
He believes locking down specific neighbourhoods in the city which are particularly badly-hit by Covid would be a less economically crippling way to tackle the disease.
Up to 85 per cent of Blackburn’s new cases are among its South Asian population, a health chief claimed yesterday.
Residents in Blackburn with Darwen and Pendle — another Lancashire borough — have been asked to wear face masks inside to avoid being stung by local draconian restrictions.
Today further data from the NHS revealed that deaths in the UK caused by the coronavirus have dropped 26 per cent in one week.
The Office for National Statistics stated that there had been 217 deaths involving coronavirus in the week ending July 24 – down from 295 the week before.
The last time that deaths from coronavirus were so low was in the week ending March 20 – before lockdown was introduced – when 103 deaths were recorded.
However while the number of deaths involving the bug have dropped across most of England, Yorkshire and the Humber and the East Midlands have seen a rise.
ONS figures — released every Tuesday — revealed overall deaths are still below the number usually expected at this time of year, based on an average from the previous five years.
There were 8,891 deaths registered in England and Wales in the week ending July 24 – 161 deaths fewer than the five-year average.
While deaths remain below the average across the two nations, there were 68 more deaths registered compared with the previous week.
The number of deaths in care homes and hospitals was also below the five-year average but the number of deaths in private homes remains above it, with 727 more deaths during the week.
Separate data showed the number of Covid-19 fatalities decreased across all English regions, except for Yorkshire and the Humber and the East Midlands.
The South East had the largest number of weekly deaths involving Covid-19 (40), while the East Midlands had the highest proportion of deaths involving coronavirus (4.4 per cent).
All regions, except for the North East, East Midlands and West Midlands, had fewer overall deaths than the five-year average.
Wales recorded one death fewer than its five-year average registered in the week ending July 24. More than 56,600 deaths involving Covid-19 have now been registered in the UK.
Tuesday’s ONS figures show that 51,596 deaths involving Covid-19 had occurred in England and Wales up to July 24, and had been registered by August 1.
Equivalent figures for Scotland registered up to July 26 and Northern Ireland up to July 29 take the total to 56,651.
These are deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate, including suspected cases.
Carl Heneghan, professor of evidence-based medicine at Oxford University, said the figures released by the ONS were more evidence of Public Health England’s inaccuracies.
It emerged last month that PHE has been classing people as Covid-19 victims if they died of any cause any time after testing positive for Covid-19 – even if they were hit by a bus months after beating the life-threatening infection.
The statistical flaw was uncovered by Professor Heneghan and Dr Yoon Loke, from the University of East Anglia, who believe more than a thousand people have had their deaths wrongly attributed to the disease.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced a fortnight ago that an ‘urgent’ review was being carried out into how the Government agency was counting deaths.
Professor Heneghan said: ‘These deaths [ONS’] do not match the Public Health England data, which reported 442 deaths in England alone for the week to the 24th of July. Given the inaccuracies in the PHE data set it should be discontinued.’
Despite the tumbling death rates, Britain yesterday recorded its highest number of coronavirus infections in almost six weeks.
Some 938 Britons tested positive for Covid-19, up a fifth on Sunday’s figure (789) and nearly 40 per cent more than the 678 recorded last Monday.
Not since June 27 — a week before pubs, restaurants, hairdressers and cinemas opened when lockdown was lifted on ‘Super Saturday’ — have daily cases been so high (960).
But figures show only 100 patients are being hospitalised each day, suggesting that an increase in the number of tests given out to people with mild symptoms is behind the climbing transmission rates.
The most recent figures on admissions — which only go up to August 1 because of delays in hospital registrations — shows that 104 people were hospitalised with the virus in England and Wales on July 31.
During the darkest days of the UK’s coronavirus crisis in April, around 3,500 people were being taken to hospital each day after being struck down by the infection.
Health chiefs also recorded nine more Covid-19 deaths yesterday, taking the total number of victims in the pandemic to 46,210. All of the deaths occurred in England.
It comes as ministers today admitted the struggling coronavirus contact tracing system must improve — but insisted schools will reopen in September despite fears of a catastrophic second peak.
Local government minister Simon Clarke conceded there is ‘more to do’ after a major study warned a resurgence of the disease could be twice as bad as that in the Spring.
Scientists said the only way of bringing back schools and avoiding another crisis around Christmas was to ramp up dramatically the NHS test and trace operation.
To prevent a second wave when schools reopen, the NHS contact tracing system must reach 68 per cent of cases and their contacts, according to researchers from University College London and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
But the current NHS system is ‘not good enough’ as it reaches just half of contacts and only a fraction of symptomatic cases are tested.