North East Lincolnshire heads up a new Covid watchlist of 25 places where infection rates are highest - as experts warn the UK has not passed the third wave peak.
The Zoe Covid Symptom Study has identified the areas with the most active cases, with eight places in London among the heaviest-hit.
Four areas in Yorkshire and the Humber and four in the North West, including Manchester and Liverpool, also have the highest rates.
Yesterday the government confirmed 39,906 daily cases, while experts from the Symptom Study estimated that 710,888 people had the virus across the UK.
It is thought that there are more than 61,500 new infections every day, and this looks likely to rise.
The areas identified for the watchlist are:
- North East Lincolnshire
- Stockton-on-Tees
- Falkirk
- Dumfries and Galloway
- Redcar and Cleveland
- Hackney
- Tower Hamlets
- Liverpool
- Halton
- Stoke-on-Trent
- Rotherham
- Barnsley
- Peterborough
- Darlington
- Islington
- Southwark
- Lambeth
- St Helens
- Hammersmith and Fulham
- Leeds
- Wandsworth
- Bedford
- Manchester
- Bradford
- Camden
Prof Tim Spector, who heads the study, said: “It is disappointing to see that the number of daily new cases is no longer falling as they have been in previous weeks, this could be a temporary blip or due to the easing of lockdown and the amount of social contact slowly increasing.
"Importantly our updated analysis of the prevalence is still continuing to show that The Midlands and Wales are key areas in the country where the amount of COVID is remaining relatively high.
"It is important that we keep a close eye on these areas."
Across all regions, it is estimated that cases are highest in London, followed by the North East and Yorkshire.
Cases per million in each region:
- London - 1209-1452
- North East and Yorkshire - 1010-1409
- North West - 877-1153
- Northern Ireland - 428-1706
- Midlands - 729-1021
- East of England - 734-947
- South West - 686-895
- South East - 697-845
- Wales - 418-741
- Scotland - 436-699
According to figures for the seven days to July 18, of the 315 local areas in England, 310 (98%) have seen a week-on-week rise in rates and five (2%) have seen a fall.
Redcar & Cleveland continues to have the highest rate, with 2,122 new cases in the seven days to July 18 - the equivalent of 1,547.2 per 100,000 people.
This is up from 924.5 in the seven days to July 11.
