Great Yarmouth has reached its highest rate of coronavirus infection since the beginning of the pandemic - with cases at almost double the rate they were in April.

Wymondham & Attleborough Mercury: Carl Smith, Great Yarmouth Council Leader. Picture: Victoria PertusaCarl Smith, Great Yarmouth Council Leader. Picture: Victoria Pertusa (Image: Archant)

For the seven days ending April 12, in the early stages of lockdown, the borough saw an infection rate of 64 cases per 100,000 people.

But the most recent figures released by Public Health England show that, for the seven day period ending on Wednesday, October 21, the rate reached 124 cases per 100,000 people - the highest it has been since the beginning of the pandemic.

This rate is also the highest there has been in any district of Norfolk since Covid-19 first arrived in the United Kingdom.

However, this rate is still significantly lower than the national average for the nation, which is 207.5 cases per 100,000 people and a fraction of the rate of Blackburn, which had a rate of 688 cases per 100,000 people for the same period.

Carl Smith, leader of Great Yarmouth Borough Council, said the council would be ramping up its response this week and continuing to urge people to stick by the rules to try and reduce that rate.

He said: “We were expecting peaks and troughs and hopefully it will come down, but we will be out with Covid marshals through this week reinforcing that message, particularly given it is half term.

“It’s more important now than ever to stick by that rule of six and do everything you can to keep that rate down.”

Meanwhile, there was a slight slowing in the rate of infection in Norwich, which dropped from 115.2 cases to 110 cases per 100,000 people.

Countywide, 698 cases in total were confirmed over the seven day period, with 123 new cases confirmed on October 21 - the most new cases in a day this year.

While Norwich saw a slowdown, however, every other district in the county saw a growth in the rate of infection - with the exception of North Norfolk.

These rates are as follows - shown against the rates for the seven days ending October 19:

Breckland: 94.2 per 100,000 (74.3)

Broadland: 70.3 per 100,000 (60.4)

Great Yarmouth: 124.8 per 100,000 (116.88)

King’s Lynn: 44.3 per 100,000 (37)

North Norfolk 36.2 per 100,000 (40.1)

Norwich: 110.3 per 100,000 (115.2)

South Norfolk: 63.9 per 100,000 (58.9)