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Two towns in Kent are put on list of 20 places facing fresh lockdown - Daily Mail

Two towns in Kent are put on list of 20 places facing fresh lockdown - Daily Mail

Two towns in Kent are put on list of 20 places facing fresh lockdown - Daily Mail
Jul 11, 2020 4 mins, 0 secs

The list is said to have been based on a document compiled by Public Health England, ranking the 20 councils with the highest current rate of positive infections.   .

Each is named in a top 20 ‘hit list’ of local authority areas drawn up by Government officials desperate for towns and cities to escape the fate of Leicester, which was the first place to have a so-called local lockdown imposed.

A public health director familiar with the situation said the demographics of the areas meant they could be fighting local outbreaks for months to come.

According to data released yesterday, 43 authorities in England have suffered a spike in Covid-19 cases in the past week — but the outbreak in locked-down Leicester has shrunk by 18 per cent, official statistics revealed today

Southampton endured the biggest week-on-week rise in coronavirus infection rates, jumping 12-fold from 0.4 new cases for every 100,000 people living in the city to 4.8 in the week that ended July 5

Public Health England figures today also revealed only three of the country's ten current coronavirus hotspots — authorities with the highest actual rates of new cases — endured an increase in infection rates this past week

Leicester — still the worst-hit part of England with an outbreak three times bigger than the next worst-hit place — saw its infection rate decrease from 141.3 to 116

The current national infection rate is 6.4 per 100,000 people, and 33 local authorities are currently tipping that average. 

England's coronavirus outbreak is still shrinking and the number of new cases have more than halved in a week, according to the results of a government surveillance testing scheme

Separate figures, from King's College London, suggest the outbreak in England has stopped shrinking — but its estimate is lower than the ONS's at around 1,200 new cases per day

Department of Health chiefs have announced an average of just 546 new positive test results per day for the past week — but up to half of infected patients are thought to never show symptoms. 

A report by Public Health England and the University of Cambridge predicted on Monday that the true number of daily cases is more like 5,300, ranging somewhere between 3,500 and 7,600. 

Fifty three authorities have either seen their infection rate stay the same or increase the past week compared to the week before (up to June 28)

The actual number of coronavirus infections in these areas is still very small and even just a handful of newly diagnosed cases in a week risks skewing the rate upwards

According to the data, Leicester is still the worst affected area, with 116 cases per 100,000 people. The city became the first place in the country to have tight lockdown rules reimposed on June 30, while the rest of England started to loosen up, after a spike in Covid-19 infections. 

The Health Secretary Matt Hancock said in the House of Commons yesterday that the decline in the coronavirus infection rate in Leicester was 'good news'. 

However he added the city must remain in its local lockdown until at least July 18, when health chiefs first promised it would be re-evaluated.  

Mr Hancock said he would not put a number on how far the infection rate had to fall before the lockdown would be lifted

His counterpart, Labour's Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth, said in Germany officials use a benchmark of 50 cases of Covid-19 per 100,000 - which is more than half that of Leicester

Rochdale has seen its infection rate drop again for a second week in a row by six per cent, following a tumble of 34.75 per cent the week previously

Rochdale council chief executive Steve Rumbelow said that although Rochdale is 'not at all as bad as Leicester', the authority had found it difficult to get detailed data on testing from Public Health England - which is crucial in managing local outbreaks

The reason Leicester spiralled into a troublesome spot was because the withholding of testing information hindered local public health chief's ability to keep on top of the virus

While published data suggested Leicester only had 80 new cases between June 13-26, it had in fact suffered 944 more - which was not revealed until it was too late and a local lockdown was slapped on the city. 

Rotherham, Oldham, Barnsley and Peterborough - all in the top 10 hardest hit local authorities right now - have also seen improvements in infection rates over the past seven days

Kirklees Council's strategic director for public health, Rachel Spencer-Henshall, said 'we are not where we would like to be' in relation to the West Yorkshire district's infection rate, Yorkshire Live reports

In a briefing note for councillors she said: 'After a steady overall decline, the rate of infection in Kirklees has gone up over the past week and we cannot ignore this

'We still remain some way behind the rates in Leicester and this increase does not currently mean we will go in to a local lockdown, but we are not where we would like to be.' 

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