Yorkshire has highest COVID prevelance in England

A major new study into COVID-19 by Imperial College London has found that the highest number of infections are in Yorkshire and The Humber with 1 in 40 people being infected as of last Sunday (25 October).

With South Yorkshire now under Tier 3 restrictions and West Yorkshire still in talks with the government, there are now renewed calls for a national lockdown.

The study shows infections continued to rise across all regions between 16 and 25 October, with 128 people per 10,000 infected.

Experts are suggesting a more national approach is needed to address the soaring infection rate.

As France enters a second lockdown from Friday and Germany imposes a four-week partial lockdown, the second wave of Covid-19 is said to have reached a "critical stage'' in England.

Key findings:

• Estimates that in England there are around 96,000 new infections per day

• Infections were found to be doubling approximately every nine days

• R rate is 1.6 (must be under 1 to stop growth)

• Yorkshire and The Humber (2.7% up from 0.84%) but in places like Bradford that rises to 3.2% based on latest data

The data also showed early signs that numbers in low-risk areas are following trends observed in the worst-affected regions.

Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick said the Government will "try everything in our power'' to avoid a "blanket national lockdown''. But Home Secretary Priti Patel said they would rule nothing out.

Mr Jenrick said coronavirus rates are in a "bad place'' all over the country but added that the Government is resisting another national lockdown.

He said the Government's "very firm view'' is that a short national "circuit-breaker'' lockdown would be the wrong approach, saying "you can't have a stop-start country''.

But asked if she would rule out another national lockdown, Ms Patel said: "Well I think at this stage of course we can rule nothing out because we are a Government that is focused on making sure that we stop the spread of this virus and also (that) we protect public health.

"So we have been using, and we are using and we will continue to use, every single means available to us to do exactly that.''

Government scientific adviser Dr Mike Tildesley has said more national restrictions are needed, with the current trajectory likely to put nearly everywhere in Tier 2 before Christmas.