MULTIPLE neighbourhoods in south Essex are still recording more than 100 coronavirus cases a week.

It comes as the region recorded a small rise in cases over the last seven days compared to the week before.

Castle Point saw a 28 per cent rise in infections, while there were further increases in Basildon (2 per cent), Southend (five per cent) and Rochford (7 per cent).

Although infection rates have almost halved in the past months, infection rates remain above 700 cases per 100,000 people in all districts and boroughs.

There are also ten neighbourhoods which recorded more than 100 cases in the latest seven day period to January 25.

They were:

  • Westborough – 115
  • Southend Central – 106
  • Kursaal – 101
  • St Lukes – 111
  • Hockley and Hawkwell West – 118
  • Laindon East and Lee Chapel North – 108
  • Chalvedon – 104
  • Canvey Island Leigh Beck – 104
  • Chadwell St Mary – 118
  • Purfleet, South Stifford and Lakeside – 137

It comes as the Government is “looking…again” at whether to scrap mandatory coronavirus vaccines for frontline health and social care workers in the light of the less severe Omicron variant.

Ministers have been facing pressure to put back the requirement for staff in England to be double jabbed by April amid fears it will lead to a major staffing crisis.

The requirement for care home staff to have two doses came into force last November.

Frontline NHS and wider social care staff would need their first dose by Thursday in order to be double jabbed by April 1, and there have been protests and calls for the policy to be delayed.

Latest figures from NHS England show that 127,515 NHS and domiciliary care staff working in registered settings had not had a first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine as of January 23.

Simon Clarke, chief secretary to the Treasury, said it was a policy “we have always kept under review” and that the decision was made when the “extremely dangerous” Delta variant was dominant.