Following announcement of the first local area lockdown – where it has been widely quoted that Leicester accounted for 10 per cent of all positive cases in the country over the last week – there has been an even greater interest in the local area data on COVID-19 cases and tests.
To meet this immediate need for data in the public domain Public Health England (PHE) has published the data underlying the graphic in its weekly surveillance report. Figure 9 in the accompanying dataset provides the weekly rate of COVID-19 cases of people tested under Pillars 1 and 2 per 100,000 population by upper-tier local authority in England. The rate of cases in Leicester shown in the table (140.2 cases per 100,000 population) is more than double the rate in any other local authority area.
It is likely demand for local area data on COVID-19 will continue to increase and we understand health bodies are expecting to publish further helpful data over the coming days.
OSR will continue to work with producers of statistics on COVID-19 to make the case for improved data in the public domain. You can see more of our work in this area on our dedicated COVID-19 webpage.