Milton Keynes shoots to top third in the list of Covid hotspots as cases continue to surge

For months the city had been in the bottom third of the list, but cases have steadily increased since lockdown ended.

Today's government statistics show another 76 confirmed cases in MK over the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 4,467 since the start of the pandemic.

Yesterday (Tuesday) there were 94 new positive tests and, sadly, four deaths recorded at MK hospital. On Monday there were 74 new cases.

Mayor of Milton Keynes Andrew Geary, said today: " This really isn’t the kind of news that I enjoy reporting and is so disappointing and concerning after such a good run of rates reducing in the preceding fortnight."

He added: "With Milton Keynes having now gone from the bottom third of local authorities to the top third, it gives rise to concerns as to what might happen come the first fortnightly review.. any hopes of any relaxation of rules in the near future seem to be dwindling away now.

"Let’s hope that with a concerted effort on all our parts and the hope of the vaccine launched yesterday that there is brighter hope ahead for 2021."