Half of people in England live in areas that are Covid free

With virus in retreat across much of country, pressure grows on PM to speed up unlocking of economy

MORE than half of people in England live in an area where new cases of Covid-19 have all but vanished, with some places not reporting any for more than a month.

Infections have been so low in areas with a total population of 34.5 million that Public Health England has redacted its latest weekly case tallies in order to protect the privacy of those testing positive, if any.

These 4,307 areas could have had at most two new cases but potentially zero in the seven days up to April 4 – and 1,091 areas, home to 8.2million people, have had their data suppressed every week since the end of February.

The near-disappearance of infections in parts of England comes in the week that the Prime Minister confirmed the lifting of lockdown would continue with the reopening of pubs, restaurants and non-essential shops tomorrow.

Underpinning the Government’s green light are “four tests”, which include infections remaining low enough to avoid a surge in hospital admissions. Around 20,000 cases are being detected across England each week, a fall of nearly 95 per cent from the peak of more than 380,000 during the worst week of the second wave.

At that time in January only six neighbourhoods out of 6,791 in PHE’s data had low enough cases to require redaction under data protection rules, as the more contagious Kent variant of Covid19 left few areas untouched.

However, many places have now gone months without enough cases to justify publication of their data.

In Devon, Bampton, Holcombe, Westleigh, Lynton and Combe Martin have all gone 10 weeks with close to zero cases, while areas in Cornwall that cover Towednack, Lelant, Carbis Bay, Probus and Roseland have gone nine weeks. On average, areas that have had their most recent weekly case total redacted are in their third successive week of close to zero cases, suggesting infections are staying low after relaxation of lockdown measures.

Overall, the regions with the highest share of areas with close to zero cases are the South West with 83.3 per cent, the South East with 76.8 per cent and the East of England with 74.5 per cent.

Yet there are pockets of high or rising infections in Yorkshire and The Humber and the East Midlands. In the former, 69.5 per cent of areas are still detecting enough cases to not require redaction, while in the latter that share stands at 51.1 per cent. One in seven areas still saw a week-on-week rise between March 28 and April 4.

This data is also at the level of what is known as a middle layer super output areas – the most granular in England for which data is available. At the next level up – local authorities – no area saw zero Covid-19 cases in the week to April 4.

The news will increase pressure on the Prime Minister to speed up the

‘It is good news we are making strong progress. If the roadmap can be accelerated, it should be’

unlocking of the economy. William Wragg, Conservative MP for Hazel Grove, said: “It is data and not dates. It is good that we are making such strong progress and I would hope therefore that there should be no impediment to progress. If the roadmap can be accelerated, it should be accelerated.”

Better than expected infection data led the Welsh Government on Friday to announce it is accelerating its lifting on lockdown.

Mark Drakeford, the Welsh First Minister, pointed to “improvements” in the nation’s public health situation when he announced that ending rules banning more than one household meeting indoors would be brought forward a week earlier to May 3.

Cases have now dropped to below 21 per 100,000 in Wales, the lowest infection rate since September.