Coronavirus cases in London rising sharply, official statistics show

Capital now has second-highest rate of Covid across England

The ONS survey sees hundreds of thousands of people test themselves for Covid each week regardless of symptoms (iStock)

The number of people catching coronavirus has risen sharply in London, the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show.

Other areas are also seeing spikes in infections, including Eastern England, the East Midlands and South East England, the ONS added. 

But the capital now has the second highest rate of coronavirus in the country, with 1.4 per cent of people in private households testing positive in the latest round of the ONS’s regular Covid survey.

The East Midlands is also a hotspot, with a similar 1.4 per cent positive rate, while in North East England the figure is 1.2 per cent. 

In total, 567,300 people are projected to have had coronavirus in the week to the 12 December in England, an increase of 18 per cent on the number the previous week. This equates to one in 95 people in England. 

Even though the latest national lockdown only ended two weeks ago, the ONS’s data modelling suggests infection rates are already rising again in all age groups, with the only exceptions young adults (school year 12 to age 24) and 50 to 69-year-olds.

The age group where coronavirus is most prevalent remains secondary school age children, in school years 7 to 11. 

The ONS has been running a Covid survey since earlier this month, asking hundreds of thousands of people chosen as a representative sample of the population to swab their nose and mouth each week regardless of whether they have symptoms or not. 

Positive rates are also on the rise in Wales, where the ONS estimates 33,400 people had Covid in the week to 12 December, equivalent to one in 90 people across the whole country. 

This would represent a 30 per cent increase on the previous week, although the ONS cautions the Wales numbers are potentially more imprecise because of the smaller sample size. 

The situation is better in Northern Ireland, where only about 0.47 per cent of the population is thought to have Covid, only a narrow increase on the previous week. 

In Scotland, an estimated 52,500 people had Covid-19 between December 6 and 12, or 1.00% of the population - up from 43,300 people the previous week.

But it is in London and a few other hotspots where coronavirus is most rampant. In the worst affected borough, Enfield, an estimated 2.5 per cent of the population had Covid last week, rates only matched across England in Leicester and South Tyneside.

In England overall, the positive rate is as high as it was in the middle of October, only a few weeks before the government were forced to impose a second lockdown to prevent the virus from spiralling out of control. 

Despite warnings next week’s Christmas relaxation of the restrictions on household mixing and socialising will fuel the pandemic’s third wave, Boris Johnson and ministers have so far insisted they will not curtail the five-day window over 25 December when up to three households can meet indoors. 

The Welsh government have already announced they will take the country into its third national lockdown after Christmas, with non-essential shops forced to close from the 24 December and tighter rules on household mixing from 28 December. 

They have also said only two households can meet during the Christmas window, unlike the three permitted in the rest of the UK.

In Northern Ireland, the executive has agreed to impose a six-week lockdown from Boxing Day but has not made any changes to the Christmas bubbling arrangements.