Covid cases rise by 42% in just one week in Milton Keynes

Coronavirus cases are rising in Milton Keynes along with most parts of the UK, official figures show.

Over the past seven days, MK has seen 2,550 new cases, which is an average of more than 364 a day.

Sadly, five Covid-linked deaths have been recorded in the borough over the past week.

Currently 81 Covid patients are in beds at MK hospital, but none of them is requiring a ventilator.

Analysis of the latest government figures, which cover the period between the week ending March 10 and the week ending March 17, show cases increased in 366 of the 380 local authorities local authority areas in the UK.

Overall there were 570,550 positive cases in the week ending March 17, a huge 39% jump on the week before

The highest increase was in Torridge in Devon, where cases soared by 112%, followed by Burnley in Lancashire, which also saw case numbers more than double.

In MK, the increase for this same period was 42.1%, with case numbers jumping from 1,631 to 2,317.

Nationally this week there have been 592,459 new cases and 836 deaths recorded over the past seven days.

The lifting of many restrictions, waning effectiveness of boosters and the spread of the highly contagious BA.2 ‘stealth Omicron’ variant have all been touted as potential reasons for rising infection rates.

At a regional level, Scotland still had the highest case rate in the week to March 17, at 1,619 cases per 100,000 residents.

This was followed by the South West, with 1,200 cases per 100,000 residents. The lowest case rate was in Wales, with 412 cases per 100,000 residents.

The figures include both positive PCR and lateral flow tests, except in Wales where only PCRs are counted.

They include people infected with Covid-19 for the first time as well as reinfections.