THE Covid-19 infection rate for Maldon district has shown a steep increase in week-on-week figures – but remains well below the national and county rates.

An examination of current Essex County Council (ECC) data tables - available on the authority's website - shows that for the seven days ending on Thursday, 12 November, the rate of confirmed positive cases in the district was 84.7 per 100,000. By Saturday, 14 November, the previous seven days in the district saw a rate of 98.5 confirmed cases per 100,000.

This compares to 52.4 per 100,000 for the week ending Thursday, 5 November.

The seven-day figure for the county area (excluding Thurrock and Southend) calculates at 140.8 per 100,000 for the week ending 12 November, up from 106.5 for the previous seven-day period. By Saturday, 14 November, the figure was 144.8 per 100,000, according to ECC's Covid-tracker data tables.

However, these figures sit far below the seven-day figure for England overall at 271.2 currently – a figure taken from the Government website today (Tuesday, 17 November).

Essex County Council releases a summary of the statistics for each county district on Thursday afternoons, covering the figures for the seven days leading up to the previous Thursday. The delay is to allow for any possible changes to the figures as test results come back – with the results being recorded against the day that they were taken. This means that final figures for the seven-day period to 12 November and to 14 November could potentially show a further increase.

For this reason, Essex County Council will not comment on the data until Thursday.