Coronavirus rates continue to fall across the five boroughs and districts in south Essex.

The latest figures show infection rates are all now lower than 220 cases per 100,000 people, and places such as Southend continue to see a week-on-week decrease of 100 cases or more.

Despite the encouraging numbers, there are still a number of neighbourhoods in south Essex where Covid rates have risen in the latest weekly period up to September 17.

They are:

  • Rochford Outer and Hawkwell East 15 new cases - up 1
  • Hullbridge 24 new cases - up 2
  • Rayleigh North West 19 new cases - up 2
  • Rayleigh North East 19 new cases - up 3
  • Wickford Shotgate 17 new cases - up 1
  • Wickford South 20 new cases - up 3 
  • Billericay Queen’s Park 19 new cases - up 6
  • Billericay North East 22 new cases - up 8
  • Billericay Central and Sunnymede 22 new cases - up 8
  • Southend Central 27 new cases - up 2
  • Hadleigh South 16 new cases - up 3
  • New Thundersley 30 new cases - up 13
  • Laindon Central 27 new cases - up 7
  • Corringham North & London Gateway 20 new cases - up 6
  • Corringham South 38 new cases - up 17
  • Little Thurrock North 17 new cases - up 7
  • Stanford East 23 new cases - up 5

It comes as the number of people testing positive for Covid-19 in England has dropped to its lowest level since the end of June.

A total of 161,923 people tested positive at least once in the week to September 15, down 22% on the previous week, according to the latest Test and Trace figures.

This is the lowest number of people testing positive since the week to June 30.

Test and Trace figures peaked at 390,234 cases in the week to January 6, at the height of the second wave of coronavirus.

A more recent spike in cases saw the number hit 309,297 in the week to July 21.

But since then the weekly figure has been around or just below 200,000.

Some 12.0% of people – around one in eight – who were transferred to Test and Trace in the week to September 15 were not reached, meaning they were not able to provide details of recent close contacts.

This is down from 12.8% in the previous week.

Anybody in England who tests positive for Covid-19, either through a rapid (LFD) test or a PCR test processed in a laboratory, is transferred to Test and Trace so their contacts can be identified and alerted.