Covid cases rising in 270 places amid fears Omicron is ‘doubling every two days’

CORONAVIRUS cases are still rising in 270 places in the UK, as experts warn the Omicron variant could cause a surge in infections.

This interactive map shows the infections in your local area and whether or not you could be in a hotspot.

Cases are rising in 270 areas as of the seven days to December 2 and the map above shows current infection rates.

While Delta is still the dominant strain in the UK, Omicron, which was first detected in South Africa is now gathering speed.

To date, 336 cases have been recorded in the UK and health secretary Sajid Javid warned that cases of the mutant bug are doubling every three days.

He said the new variant is known to be spreading in the community and could “knock us off our road to recovery”.

The true figure of Omicron infections is more like 1,000 to 2,000, according to Prof Tim Spector, an epidemiologist and lead of the Covid outbreak tracking study ZOE.

He said that there could be many people in the community who do not know they have the virus if it is causing more mild disease, as some early data from South Africa indicates. 

Prof Spector suggested that cases of the virus are actually doubling every two days.

He explained: “We are expecting this to be doubling about every two days at the moment, so if you do your maths – assume it’s 1,000 at the moment, and you think it’s going to be doubling every two days, you can see that those numbers are going to be pretty (high) certainly in about 10 days’ time.

“By that time, we’ll probably have more cases than they will in some of those African countries.

🔵 Read our Omicron variant live blog for the latest news

“So I think these travel restrictions do perhaps have their place initially, when cases are really low here and really high in the other country, but when we reach that equilibrium, there’s very little point in having them in my opinion.”

Others have also warned that cases could peak at 90,000 a day by Christmas and that Omicron could become the dominant variant within the next month.

But as infections of Omicron are continuing to surge, many local areas are already dealing with high case loads.

Torridge in Devon continues to have the highest rate in the UK, with 693 new cases in the seven days to December 2 – the equivalent of 1,008.5 per 100,000 people.

This is down from 1,073.9 in the seven days to November 25.

North Devon has the second highest rate, down from 900.5 to 853.6, with 838 new cases.

Gwynedd in Wales has the third highest rate, down slightly from 846.8 to 842.0, with 1,054 new cases.

Newry, Mourne & Down has the highest rate in Northern Ireland (822.4, up from 601.1) and Falkirk has the highest rate in Scotland (608.5, up from 574.9).

While these places have the most infections, there are also five areas that have witnessed a big jump in case loads.

South Northamptonshire has witnessed an increase, going from 554.0 per 100,000 to 815.8.

Extra testing has been rolled out in the area after more cases of Omicron were confirmed there.

So far 13 cases have been reported in the area and health chiefs have said that there are ‘probably more’.

West Devon has also seen a surge, jumping from 452.4 to 698.3 and cases have also spiked in South Hams, going from 608.3 to 832.3.

Newry, Mourne & Down has increased from 601.1 to 822.4 and East Ayrshire has also seen a rise, going from 373.4 to 575.7.

Another 90 Omicron cases were last night announced in the UK as the country’s case total soared above 50,000 for the third time in ten days.

Yesterday’s 51,459 cases marked a 20.8 per cent week-on-week rise – after 42,583 cases were recorded last Monday.