The rate of new cases of coronavirus in Southend is four times higher than the rest of Essex.

Public health data shows the rate of new cases in each area, with Southend recording 20.8 per 100,000 people, in the week ending June 21.

The rest of the county recorded 5.8 in the same time period, according to the figures, which are based off tests carried out in laboratories as part of the government's testing programme plus community testing, drive-throughs and tests sent to people's homes.

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This puts Southend 16th highest across the UK for new Covid-19 cases.

Comparably, Leicester, which has now gone into full lockdown, had 140.2 cases per 100,000.

Southend Council say their daily rolling average for new coronavirus cases is 'in the green', meaning there is no cause for concern.

New data is expected to be analysed tomorrow, bosses have said.

Krishna Ramkhelawon, director of public health, said: “These figures showing weekly case increases is already ten days old and as with all data, context is important and needed.

“In the week that this data was collected, 23 new cases were recorded.

"Eighteen of these were from testing in the community,which can take up to 72 hours to be recorded.

"If all these results come back and are recorded on one particular day or week, this can naturally skew your daily and weekly figures.

“As of yesterday, only eight new cases have so far been recorded this week which is clearly lower than the week before and will lower our seven and 10 day infection rate rolling average.

“I’d like to reassure our residents that we monitor all cases daily and receive a risk rating from Public Health England which is based on the rolling average."