New figures show which areas of West Sussex have seen the most new virus cases

The latest coronavirus figures from the government show which parts of West Sussex have seen the most new cases in recent weeks.

During the two-week period between May 23 and June 6, Horsham saw the highest number of new coronavirus cases. The number of confirmed cases in the district rose by nine, from 208 to 217.

Crawley followed with six new cases, with the total number rising from 206 to 212 over the fortnight.

Next was Mid Sussex, where five new cases were identified. The total number of cases in the district now stands at 290.

In Worthing, three new cases were confirmed, with the total figure recorded as 217 on June 6.

Adur and Arun both saw just one more case of the virus identified during the two-week period. This means that, as of June 6, Adur had 99 confirmed cases while Arun had 164.

Meanwhile Chichester saw no new cases of the virus during the fortnight period. The district has seen 142 cases of the virus in total, as of June 6.

As of June 11, the total number of cases in West Sussex stood at 1,343.

Monitoring the number of new infections plays an important part in measuring R, the reproduction rate of the virus. The UK Government last month unveiled plans for ‘local lockdowns’ in the next phase of the fight against the pandemic. At a press briefing on Friday, June 5, health secretary Matt Hancock said measures had since been put in place to dampen localised outbreaks, such as in Westonsuper-mare, Somerset.

There, Weston General Hospital has been closed to new patients to control the spread of the virus among patients and staff.

Mr Hancock said it would be ‘increasingly important’ to monitor data at local levels and then take action, a job which would fall to the new Joint Biosecurity Centre.

He said: “We need to get more granular and more focused and find the source of the local outbreak and then deal with it.”

The highest rates of new cases in the past fortnight were seen in Ashford and Tunbridge Wells in South East England, Huntingdonshire in the East of England and North Wales. Each of these areas saw more than 50 new cases diagnosed for every 100,000 residents in the two weeks to June 6.