INFECTION RATE STILL RISING

LEICESTER’S seven-day coronavirus infection rate continues to rise, remaining higher than it was when the local lockdown started.

Latest figures – for October 8-15 – show the city’s rate as 173.3 cases per 100,000 people, with 614 current cases of the virus.

The rate is higher than the national average – 136.4 cases per 100,000 – but sees Leicester sink further down the national rankings with the highest rate, according to the NHS, now in Knowsley, which has 572 cases per 100,000.

In Leicestershire as a whole, there are 1,003 current cases and a seven-day rate of 142 cases per 100,000 people.

The city and Oadby and Wigston are classed as high alert areas with tier two restrictions in place.

The rest of the county is in the lowest, medium alert bracket, with tier one restrictions in place.

The rate in the city for September 26 to October 2 was 122.2 cases per 100,000.

When the city went into local lockdown on June 30, the rate was at 135 cases per 100,000.

More than 200 cases a day were being confirmed across the city and county for most of last week. On one day, 350 new cases were recorded.

Over the weekend, more than 600 new cases were confirmed across the city and county combined.

The county’s director of public health has warned residents that the second wave has arrived and backed calls for a national circuit breaker.

Mike Sandys told the Mercury: “It probably is time, instead of having lots of local lockdowns or levels twos and threes, just ‘fess up, call it a national lockdown and just say that.

“When we went into national lockdown everybody got it, most people understood what the score was and observed the rules and the risk with all of the local restrictions being put in place is that people aren’t picking up the message.”