The 10 Blackpool areas with highest Covid infections in the past week

Coronavirus cases are now rising in half of the UK’s council areas, official figures show.

They are also on the up in some neighbourhoods within Blackpool.

There were 260,691 positive cases in the UK in the week ending March 3, a 2% increase on the week before.

Some 186 of the UK’s local authority areas (49%) saw cases rise in the past week.

The lifting of many restrictions, waning effectiveness of boosters and the spread of the highly contagious BA.2 ‘stealth Omicron’ variant have all been touted as potential reasons for rising infection rates.

At a local level, nine areas of Blackpool saw cases fall, while 10 neighbourhoods recorded increases in the last week.

The figures include both positive PCR and lateral flow tests, except in Wales where only PCRs are counted.

They include people infected with Covid-19 for the first time as well as reinfections.

At neighbourhood level, Covid-19 case rates have been published for the week to [insert relevant date for your nation].

Here are the neighbourhoods in Blackpool with the biggest rise in case rates in the past week.

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