Bexley has seen a marked rise in Covid-19 cases over the past seven days, but the rest of south east London continues to report some of the lowest infection rates in London.

Public Health England has released its rolling seven rate of new cases of Covid-19 for the whole of England, showing how the number of new cases and infection rates are trending.

And in the capital's south east boroughs, Covid-19 rates remain relatively under control as we enter the second week of the country's second lockdown.

But the borough of Bexley has bucked that trend this week after seeing a rapid rise in confirmed cases of Covid-19, with a spike of 531 cases over the past week.

Bexley's Covid-19 rate, judged as the number of cases per 100,000 population, is currently 213.9, the first time it's rate has risen above 200 and a sizeable rise from 145.4 it recorded seven days ago.

 

 

The borough currently has the fifth highest rate in London, behind Havering (263.9), Redbridge, Tower Hamlets and Barking and Dagenham.

The figures, for the seven days to November 7, are based on tests carried out in laboratories (pillar one of the Government's testing programme) and in the wider community (pillar two).

The rate is expressed as the number of new cases per 100,000 people, and data for the most recent four days (November 8-11) has been excluded as it is incomplete and does not reflect the true number of cases.

But whilst Bexley has seen a worrying rise, the rest of south east London are following if not leading a trend in the capital of falling infection rates.

Greenwich currently has the second highest rate in the area, with 122.9 cases per 100,000 people, after it recorded 354 Covid-19 cases in the past seven days.

This is a tiny increase from the previous week when it recorded 121.6.

Bromley has also seen a rise in cases, 376 in the last week, but its infection rate is only 113.1, which is low for the capital.

Lewisham currently has one one of the lowest Covid-19 rates in London at 103.3 after 316 cases were recorded, although this is still a rise from 99.1 the week prior.

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Nearby, Dartford has also seen a spike in cases and it's Covid-19 rate is currently 224.7.

Croydon has a rate of 117.9, and Southwark 102.6, which is actually a fall in cases.

In fact, cases fell across 21 London boroughs over the last week, with Kingston upon Thames seeing the largest fall from 262 to 147.6.

Some of the decline in cases is down to less people getting tested during half-term, according to health officials, but many are hopeful this is evidence of the new lockdown working.

Some have even called for the lockdown to end early in London, although this has not seen much support from White Hall.

A majority of areas in England (218 out of 315), however, have seen a rise in case rates.

Hull has the highest rate in England, with 1,888 new cases recorded in the seven days to November 7 - the equivalent of 726.8 cases per 100,000 people.

This is up sharply from 436.5 cases per 100,000 in the seven days to October 31.

Oldham has the second highest rate, down slightly from 741.4 to 720.8, with 1,709 new cases.

Blackburn with Darwen is in third place, where the rate has risen very slightly from 708.1 to 715.4, with 1,071 new cases.

Areas recording the biggest week-on-week jumps include Scarborough (up from 172.9 to 465.3, with 506 new cases); North East Lincolnshire (up from 453.7 to 632.4, with 1,009 new cases); and Melton (up from 164.0 to 333.9, with 171 new cases).

The list has been calculated by the PA news agency and is based on Public Health England data published on November 11 on the Government's coronavirus dashboard.