There is deep concern in Liverpool as the city's raging coronavirus infection rate has reached close to 200 cases per 100,000 residents.
The city's infections have been rocketing in recent weeks, prompting the government to impose new local lockdown measures here and across the whole Merseyside region.
Those restrictions came in on Tuesday, but the levels of infection have continued to surge and are threatening to get out of control.
The ECHO understands that the concerns around the rapidly rising numbers means that further restrictions for the city could be discussed in the coming days.
For context, Leicester's infection rate was around 140 cases per 100,000 when it was put into a full city-wide lockdown earlier in the summer.
Data extracted covering testing up to 22nd September 2020 show that the total number of confirmed cases for the last 7 days is 982, an increase of 362 cases on the previous week.
The latest weekly rate of Covid-19 in Liverpool is 197.2 per 100,000 population and the latest positivity testing rate is 10.9%.
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To give a sense of the speed at which cases have exploded in Liverpool, there were just 94 cases per week across the city at the start of the month.
Back in July it was just 14 cases per week.
A council statement said: "There is now a widespread community transmission of the virus in Liverpool, with new positive Covid-19 cases recorded mainly in the working age population."
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The wards with the largest number of confirmed cases are Speke-Garston (68 cases), Wavertree (53 cases), Riverside (51 cases), Old Swan (45 cases), Central (43 cases), Norris Green (43 cases), Kirkdale (41 cases), and Clubmoor (40 cases).
Compared to the previous week, confirmed cases in all wards have increased, except in Allerton and Hunts Cross and Belle Vale.
Despite the towering rates of infection, people in the city are still struggling to get tests for Covid-19.
Last night Mayor Joe Anderson tweeted: "My grandson is 1 of 5,000 kids sent home from school because of a #Covid case.
"My son's been sent home from work, without pay, until he can provide a test result, but can't get a test.
"This is the #everydayfailure of this government's national testing system which isn't working."
