Covid-19 infection rates continue to fluctuate across south east London boroughs, but the relaxing of the national lockdown appears not to have affected cases in the area.

The latest figures from Public Health England show a majority of falling case rates, but one borough has noticeably higher numbers of virus cases than the rest of the region.

Bexley is the only borough to have recorded over 100 new cases in the last week, but the statistics across the board remain low.

The numbers, released by the Government on Tuesday, April 6, show the coronavirus case rate for every English local authority, expressed as the number of new cases per 100,000 people in the last week.

The figures are accurate for the seven days up to April 2, just before the Easter weekend, and are based on both laboratory and community testing.

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And for all four main south east London patch boroughs, the infection rate has actually declined in the last week.

This comes after numbers seemed to be on the rise again after the strict lockdown rules began to ease last week.

It is in Bexley where the case rate is highest, currently recording 44.7 after 111 new Covid-19 cases were recorded.

But this represents a decline from the week previous when the rate was 60.4, and whilst it is the highest in the region, it is a far cry from the 1,100+ figures seen in early January.

Greenwich is the next highest, recording a rate of 25.0, also down from 43.4 last week, and the borough recorded 72 new cases.

Bromley and Lewisham both currently boast some of the lowest infection rates in the country.

The former recorded a rate of 17.2, down from 23.2, and just reported 57 new cases in the last week.

In Lewisham, 46 new cases were found, and the Covid-19 rate dropped from 25.5 to 15.0.

And in Southwark, the case rate is 16.9, falling from 22.3 after 54 new cases were recorded.

Nearby, Croydon reported an even lower rate of 14.7, also in decline, and recorded 57 cases.

In Dartford, the case rate is slightly higher at 41.7, with 47 new cases reported.

Nationally, of the 315 local areas in England, 31 (10%) have seen a rise in case rates, 276 (88%) have seen a fall and eight are unchanged.

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Corby in Northamptonshire continues to have the highest rate in England, with 105 new cases recorded in the seven days to April 2 - the equivalent of 145.4 cases per 100,000 people.

This is down from 242.3 per 100,000 in the seven days to March 26.

Doncaster has the second highest rate, down from 135.6 to 113.5, with 354 new cases.

Barnsley has the third highest rate, down from 153.5 to 110.6, with 273 new cases.

The five areas with the biggest week-on-week rise are:

Daventry (up from 25.6 to 46.5)

Newcastle upon Tyne (41.6 to 58.8)

Watford (28.0 to 42.5)

Craven (40.3 to 50.8)

Wealden (14.2 to 24.2)

The list has been calculated by the PA news agency based on Public Health England data published on April 6 on the Government's coronavirus dashboard.