There has been a spike in coronavirus cases in East Suffolk, which includes the Felixstowe peninsula, over the weekend according to figures released today.

While eight people have tested positive for Covid-19 in Suffolk since Friday, July 31, half of those cases came from the East Suffolk area, with 888 cases now confirmed, the highest figure in Suffolk, with Ipswich in second with 713 and Babergh the lowest with 256.

Compared to the previous briefing (July 31) the number of cases has increased by eight. All except one of these cases were added within the last two weeks, as figures revealed by the Suffolk Resilience show.

However, Ipswich has the highest residents affected per 100.000 with 518.4, compared to East Suffolk's 357.7 per 100,000, the average in Suffolk is 354.6 per 100k.

Nationally since last night 302,695 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in the UK (pillar one and pillar two testing). Of those who tested positive for COVID-19 in the UK, 46,201 have died across all settings.

From July 2, the number of lab-confirmed positive cases now includes those identified by testing in all settings (pillars one and two). Pillar two refers to tests in commercial labs working in partnership with the NHS. Previously, only Pillar One confirmed cases were included (tests completed in NHS labs).

Due to this change many cases previously not attributed to any area are now included in area totals. This is not a recent surge in cases – the cases now being reported occurred from April onwards.

As this quality of this data continues to improve, these numbers may continue to fluctuate over time, but overall, case numbers and case rates in Suffolk remain low compared to the East of England and England as a whole.

Millions of new rapid coronavirus tests will be rolled out across NHS hospitals, care homes and labs from next week.