Oldham recorded the highest number of coronavirus cases since the peak of the pandemic last week - and the rate of infection is still rising.
There were 208 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Oldham in the week up to August 7, according to the latest data from Public Health England (PHE).
It’s the first time the seven day total in the borough has gone above 200 since April 14 - which was the very height of the pandemic.
The infection rate there, 87.7 in the week ending August 7, is still the highest across all of Greater Manchester and it has been rising day by day.
There have only been four days back in April when the infection rate was higher in Oldham than it was on August 7.
Oldham now has the second highest rate in England, just below Pendle where the rate has jumped from 44.5 in the seven days to July 31 to 96.6 in the seven days to August 7.
A total of 89 new cases have been recorded in Pendle during that time.
Blackburn with Darwen is third, where the rate has increased slightly from 78.8 to 80.2, with 120 new cases.
Meanwhile Leicester too has seen a slight rise, from 54.2 to 58.2, with 206 new cases.
Here in Greater Manchester, cases are still heading upwards in Tameside, Bolton, Rochdale and Bury.
Manchester is now on a downward trend with cases dropping 10 per cent week-on-week.
Trafford too is also still on a downward trend.
The PHE figures, for the seven days to August 7, are based on tests carried out in laboratories (pillar one of the Government’s testing programme) and in the wider community (pillar two).
It is this data which the government uses to determine whether to put a region into local lockdown - and the data would also be used to decide if local restrictions should be lifted
The rate is expressed as the number of new cases per 100,000 people.
Death rates are going down and there were no deaths recorded at any Greater Manchester hospital for three days running over the weekend.
Also, the number of people being tested is rising, which will lead to the number of positive tests rising. However, there is no publicly accessible data for how many tests were conducted in all areas, so it is not possible to compare these
The the number of new cases recorded in the seven days to August 7 across each borough were:
Oldham - 208
Rochdale - 88
Tameside - 82
Manchester - 180
Bolton - 81
Salford - 70
Bury - 49
Stockport -67
Trafford- 50
Wigan - 26
