Coronavirus cases in Manchester are doubling every week, new figures suggest.
The latest Public Health England (PHE) figures show Manchester's infection rate - the number of positive coronavirus tests for every 100,000 in the local population - has risen again to 561.7 for the seven days up to October 2.
It means about 0.5 per cent of people in the area tested positive during the week concerned.
The infection rate in Manchester is broadly double the figure for the rest of Greater Manchester.
The figures suggest the number of cases in Manchester is doubling every week.
Manchester registered 3,105 positive tests in the week to October 2, up from 1,444 the week before.
That represents a week-on-week increase of 115 per cent.
It is the first place in the country to register an infection rate of more than 500.
No other part of the country has ever registered an infection rate above 500, although there is now much more testing than at the height of the first wave of the pandemic in April and May. Then, only people in hospitals were being tested.
This new figures represent the first week when all ten of Greater Manchester's have registered an infection rate of more than 200.
Previously, there had been a sub-200 figure for Stockport but the latest figures show the town had 202.8 positive tests per 100,000 people during the week in question.
The total number of cases in Stockport (595) has almost doubled in a week.
Bolton, where there has been a strict local lockdown for a longer period, registered 722 positive tests during the week, up just 10 compared to the week before.
All ten boroughs have been, and remain, at 'red alert', where PHE requires local intervention.
After Manchester, Rochdale (305.7) has the next highest infection rate followed by Salford (293.6), Bury (272.3), Bolton (251.1), Oldham (250.9), Wigan (239.5), Tameside (222.1) and finally Stockport (202.8).
The average infection rate for England is 108.6.
