Coronavirus infection rates continue to cause concern in Northampton, Luton, Bedford and Peterborough

Watch a report by ITV News Anglia's Rebecca Haworth

Health officials are warning the public to stay "Covid safe" as some parts of the Anglia region continue to suffer infection rates many times higher than most other areas.

There are fears that Northampton could be facing a local lockdown as the town saw its highest weekly number of new cases since the end of May.

Northampton, along with Luton, Bedford and Peterborough remain on the Public Health England watchlist because of a relatively high number of cases.

Despite a rise in cases in Luton, additional lockdown restrictions in the town have been eased to bring it back in line with surrounding areas.

Luton, Peterborough, Bedford and Northampton are on Public Health England's watchlist for coronavirus. Credit: ITV News Anglia

There were 83 new positive tests for coronavirus in Northampton in the week to Friday 7 August. That is an increase of a third on the 62 new cases that were recorded in the previous week.

With 37 cases per 100,000 in the population in the town, the infection rate in Northampton is six time higher than that for the Anglia region as a whole.

The number of weekly cases in the Anglia region was 456 last week compared to 438 during the previous week.

There have now been more than 29,000 coronavirus cases across the region which encompasses the East of England along with Northamptonshire and Milton Keynes.

The map shows the number of people dying with coronavirus in each county in the Anglia region. Credit: Data from the Office of National Statistics, the NHS and the Care Quality Commission

Positive tests for coronavirus in the Anglia region since the start of the pandemic (Data from Public Health England)

  • 4,326 cases in Bedfordshire - 84 cases last week compared to 91 the week before

  • 3,845 cases in Cambridgeshire - 46 cases last week compared to 74 the week before

  • 7,073 cases in Essex - 55 cases last week compared to 60 the week before

  • 4,386 cases in Hertfordshire - 59 cases last week compared to 61 the week before

  • 899 cases in Milton Keynes - 17 cases last week compared to 12 the week before

  • 2,943 cases in Norfolk - 33 cases last week compared to 17 the week before

  • 3,721 cases in Northamptonshire - 139 cases last week compared to 104 the week before

  • 102 cases in Rutland - 1 case last week compared to 0 the week before

  • 2,714 cases in Suffolk - 22 cases last week compared to 19 the week before

The rate of confirmed cases in England is 477 per 100,000.

The NHS reported at the weekend that three more patients had died with coronavirus taking the regional total to 6,024 since the start of the pandemic.

The deaths were at the Luton & Dunstable Hospital on Tuesday 4 August, at Bedford Hospital on Wednesday 5 August, at the North West Anglia NHS Trust, which runs Peterborough City Hospital and Hinchingbrooke Hospital in Huntingdon on Friday 7 August.