New Government figures have revealed the ten areas in Bristol where coronavirus cases were still rising, in the week up to the start of 'surge testing' to find the new Bristol variant.
Public health chiefs announced a massive testing programme at sites across Bristol and South Gloucestershire in the first week of February, which began last weekend, as they began to search for more cases of the new Bristol variant, which was discovered by scientists at the start of the month.
Public Health officials in Bristol said at the time that 11 cases of the new variant had been discovered, but announced more than 20 postcode areas across the city and beyond where they would be searching for the new variant.
And the latest hyper-localised covid case figures from the Department of Health perhaps give a clue why. At the time, and despite lockdown entering its second month, the numbers of new cases in ten specific areas of the city were on the increase, while in the rest of Bristol, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset, they were continuing to fall.
The latest statistics show the number of cases found in the week up to and including February 9, last Tuesday, and include the days when public health chiefs rushed to set up testing facilities.
They show that there were ten areas where cases were on the rise, which would have been of concern to public health chiefs and the Department of Health.
While those areas don't exactly match the postcodes where surge testing took place, many of them mirror them almost exactly.
There is currently only one area in Bristol with a case rate over 400 - Downend North, in South Gloucestershire. That's compared to the middle of January, where multiple areas across the city had case rates much higher at the time.
The ten areas where covid cases were rising are listed below. The number of cases for the week to February 2 are shown, then the number of cases in the week to February 9. A 'case rate', which is the average number of cases per 100,000 people, is listed in brackets.
Downend North 5 to 25 (405)
Fishponds South 21 to 25 (392)
Knowle West 16 to 24 (318)
St Annes 12 to 31 (315)
Broomhill 13 to 23 (302)
Mangotsfield 13 to 20 (299)
Knowle 18 to 22 (261)
Pucklechurch & Westerleigh 19 to 29 (257)
Fishponds North 19 to 22 (226)
Speedwell 13 to 18 (221)
