The latest coronavirus case figures issued by Public Health England show that North West Leicestershire has the third highest rate in England.

Last week, Leicestershire County Council issued a statement saying that the region was No11 in the country.

But the new data shows the situation has worsened and continues to be a problem.

The Public Heath England statistics are for the week ending last Friday, February 26, which showed that North West Leicestershire had a seven day infection rate of 198.8 per 100,000 people, with 206 new cases.

That puts the region third behind Leicester, 207.8, and Corby in Northamptonshire, which came in first with a rate of 229.9.

Those figures for North West Leicestershire were actually less than the previous week when the rate was well over 200 (220.1) with 228 new cases.

And while yesterday's (Tuesday) figures showed a further drop, North West Leicestershire's recorded coronavirus rates are still well above the national average.

Ten new cases were recorded in the district, meaning a seven-day infection rate of 192.1 - still the second highest in the county and likely to be among the worst in England.

But number of new Covid cases confirmed across the city and county on Tuesday has again dropped to the lowest daily total so far this year.

Overall there were 156 new infections identified – 67 in Leicester and 89 spread across Leicestershire.

Although numbers are a fraction of what they were a few weeks ago when daily totals were as high as in the 800s at the start of the year – infection rates in the city and some areas of the county remain higher than the national average.

Charnwood added 36 new infections to its overall toll while Blaby added 12.

There were 11 cases in Harborough and ten in North West Leicestershire.

Hinckley and Bosworth added eight, Oadby and Wigston added seven and there were five recorded in Melton.

The new cases, updated on Tuesday at 4pm, mean that the total number of cases across the city and county since the start of the pandemic area by area are :

• Leicester: 34,064
• Blaby: 6,606
• Charnwood: 11,668
• Harborough: 4,829
• Hinckley and Bosworth: 5,692
• Melton: 2,447
• North West Leicestershire: 5,588
• Oadby and Wigston: 4,731

The latest seven-day infection rates, area by area, are:

• Leicester: 217.9 cases per 100,000 (772 cases this week)
• Blaby: 137.9 cases per 100,000 (140)
• Charnwood: 149.6 cases per 100,000 (278)
• Harborough: 109.8 cases per 100,000 (103)
• Hinckley and Bosworth: 124.6 cases per 100,000 (141)
• Melton: 99.6 cases per 100,000 (51)
• North West Leicestershire: 192.1 cases per 100,000 (199)
• Oadby and Wigston: 177.1 cases per 100,000 (101)