With schools set to start reopening across London next week, Richmond continues to have the lowest rate of coronavirus infection in southwest London.

Despite new cases of the highly infectious South African variant being discovered in the New Addington area, lockdown measures continue to reduce the number of cases where the virus has been transmitted.

This continues a trend seen in recent weeks as the third national lockdown helps to reduce the amount of direct contact between people.

The figures, for the seven days to February 22, are based on tests carried out in laboratories (pillar one of the Government’s testing programme) and in the wider community (pillar two).

The rate is expressed as the number of new cases per 100,000 people.

Data for the most recent four days (February 23-26) has been excluded as it is incomplete and does not reflect the true number of cases.

In southwest London, Merton continues to rank slightly higher than its neighbours for the rate of infection per 100,000 people - currently at 95.9, which equates to 198 new cases - this is down from 129.8 (268 new cases the previous week).

 

Croydon follows after with a rate of 88.2 which equates to 341 new cases, down from 98.8 (382 new cases) the previous week.

Sutton’s rate is 83.8 based on 173 new cases (down from 110.0 and 227 new cases), followed by Wandsworth at 69.5 with 229 new cases (down from 90.1 and 297 new cases), and Lambeth with a rate of 69.3 with 226 new cases (down from 101.5 and 331 new cases the previous week).

Kingston registered an infection rate of 62.5 with 111 new cases (down from 114.4 with 203 new cases), while Richmond registered the lowest rate in southwest London again of 59.1 with 117 new cases (down from 78.8 and 156 new cases in the previous week).

The list has been calculated based on Public Health England data published on February 26 on the Government’s coronavirus dashboard.