Bristol's coronavirus rate has started to climb up the UK's ranking after weeks of declining infections.
It's been two weeks since England's second lockdown finished, which is around the time experts say a change in behaviour will show in figures.
Tomorrow, restrictions in our city and North Somerset will be slightly eased as we enter a Tier 2. Days later, measures will be lifted even further as the five-day Christmas break gets underway.
The latest breakdown of Government figures shows Bristol's rate per 100,000 now stands at 128.6, this compares to 120.4 on Thursday, Wednesday's 117.2 and Tuesday's 115.
And it places us 267th out of a possible 380 areas.
England's Covid rate continue to soar and now stands at 219.6.
Public Health England's latest data also shows a further two people have died in Bristol after contracting the virus.
Council chiefs have also confirmed that the number of patients in Bristol's hospital with Covid has been increasing.
On Wednesday, there were 192 people in our local hospitals who have tested positive for COVID-19.
UK-wide, a further 489 Covid deaths have been confirmed, and 28,507 cases have been recorded over the past 24 hours.
The breakdown of new cases
Today's daily rise in cases for each part of the region is recorded below, with the total figure during the pandemic in brackets:
Bath and North East Somerset: +25 (4,095)
Bristol: +76 (16,817)
North Somerset: +42 (4,805)
South Gloucestershire: +73 (7,346)
R rate
The South West's coronavirus infection rate has surged this week, but still remains one of the lowest in the country.
New data released by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies shows our region's R number is now between 0.9 and 1.2, up from 0.8-1.0 last week.
This means every ten people with the virus could be spreading it to up to 12 others.
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Meanwhile, our growth rate has risen from -4 to 0, which showed the virus was shrinking, to 0 to +3. This means the virus could be spreading by up to three per cent every day.
