Covid rates in Southampton more than doubled throughout December.

The latest figures for every local authority area in the UK show that the Covid case rate across Southampton is currently at 1,310.1 cases per 100,000 people.

The figures, for the seven days to December 30, are based on the number of people who have tested positive for Covid-19 in lab-reported tests, plus positive rapid lateral flow tests that do not have a negative confirmatory lab-based polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test within 72 hours.

In the seven days up to December 30 there were 3,313 cases in the city, an increase of almost 20 per cent from the prior week.

That is a 150 per cent increase on the rates in Southampton at the start of the month.

In the seven days up to December 1, Covid case rates in the city were at 506.6 cases per 100,000 people after 1,281 positive cases.

But how does that compare to case rates across the rest of the country?

The worst rates in the UK are in Derry City & Strabane in Northern Ireland.

The most recent figures show that the area recorded 5,570 new Covid cases, leaving it with a rate of 3,686.1 cases per 100,000 people.

In Wales the worst Covid rates are found in Rhondda Cynon Taf, which has a case rate of 2,632 cases per 100,000 people following 6,366 new cases.

In the seven days up to December 30, the worst rate (2,430.2 cases per 100,000 people) in England was in St Helens, while the highest rate in Scotland was found in North Lanarkshire where 5,051 cases saw a case rate of 1,480.6.