How the Covid infection rate in Leeds has risen as Boris Johnson says "stay at home" in new third national lockdown announcement

On Monday, January 4, Boris Johnson told the whole of England, including Leeds, to "stay at home".

The Covid infection rate in Leeds on this day was published as being 253.5 cases per 100,000 people.

Although this is much lower than rates in London and the South East, the infection rate has begun to rise quickly.

--> The Leeds areas with the worst infection rates

The positivity rate on January 4 was 13.6 per cent which is up 36.4 per cent from last week.

Before the announcement of the lockdown, CEO of Leeds City Council, Tom Riordan tweeted: "Case numbers rising fast in Leeds - now up to 253.5 per 100k & positivity 13.6%.

"Please keep your distance & take care.

"This article is worth a read showing excellent NHS & care partnership in Leeds & 100s of people of all ages facing 'long Covid' impact"

There has been a continuous daily rise in the Covid infection rates in Leeds, and on January 3, just the day before the lockdown was announced, the rate in Leeds was published as 224.4 cases per 100,000 people with a positivity rate of 12.3 per cent.

This is a rise from Saturday, January 2, when infection rates were 203 cases per 100,000 people across the city.

This was at a positivity rate of 10.8 per cent.

In comparison, the positivity rate on New Year's Eve was 8.4 per cent which shows a sharp rise in infection rates in Leeds since the New Year.

As a sub set, the over 60s rate on January 3 was 163 cases per 100,000 people which is a significant rise from 151 cases per 100,000 people just the day before.

The latest figures from NHS England show there were 145 Covid-19 patients in Leeds hospitals as of December 29.

This remains lower than the peak in November, where up to 331 coronavirus patients were recorded.

The Prime Minister said that in England the number of Covid patients in hospitals has increased by nearly a third in the last week to almost 27,000 – some 40% higher than the first peak in April.

On December 29 “more than 80,000 people tested positive for Covid across the UK”, the number of deaths is up by 20% over the last week “and will sadly rise further”.

“With most of the country, or maybe under extreme measures, it’s clear that we need to do more together to bring this new variant under control while our vaccines are rolled out.

“In England we must therefore go into a national lockdown which is tough enough to contain this variant.”

--> The lockdown rules in Leeds in full

Under the third national lockdown rules:

- You cannot leave your home to meet socially with anyone you do not live with or are not in a support bubble with (if you are legally permitted to form one).

- You may exercise on your own, with one other person, or with your household or support bubble.

- You should not meet other people you do not live with, or have formed a support bubble with, unless for a permitted reason.

- Non-essential shops and businesses must also close

The lockdown will begin on Wednesday morning, ie just after 11.59pm on Tuesday evening, and is expected to be in effect until at least February half term, so it is roughly six weeks at a minimum.

The country will move to alert level 5, which means NHS capacity may well be overwhelmed in 21 days.