Coronavirus: Sheffield has highest infection rates after London

Centre for Cities said there was "no single reason" why some places have more cases than others

Sheffield has been named as having the highest level of coronavirus infections outside of London.

The Yorkshire city has 62 confirmed cases per 100,000 people, according to research by the Centre for Cities.

It said the ratio of cases confirmed in Sheffield had increased more rapidly than in other cities of similar size.

The council said the figures reflected more testing taking place in the city than other areas of the country.

Greg Fell, director of public health in Sheffield, said: "I understand that people may find the reported number of cases in Sheffield worrying, but the data is simply a reflection that there is more testing happening here currently than in some other areas and so by default we know about more positive cases.

"This doesn't necessarily mean that there's more chance of being infected here than other parts of Yorkshire.

"Regardless of the current data, my advice is the same. Stay home, protect the NHS, save lives."

People in Sheffield have been able to visit a drive-through coronavirus testing site, according to Yorkshire Live.

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Mr Fell said "stay at home means stay at home, not hang out at the park, or go to church, or the DIY shop"

As of Tuesday 31 March, there have been 25,150 recorded cases of coronavirus in the UK with 1,789 deaths.

Official government figures show there have been 451 cases in the Sheffield area.

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In terms of recorded cases by region, Sheffield is in third place behind Birmingham, which has 650 cases, and Hampshire which has 567.

However, research organisation Centre for Cities has broken down the data by population size and found that Sheffield is second only to London which has more than 70 confirmed cases per 100,000 people.

These figures include people who have recovered from the disease.

Meadowhall shopping centre in Sheffield is temporarily closed as the UK continues in lockdown

Hull has the lowest number of cases per population, with four confirmed cases per 100,000 inhabitants.

Elsewhere in Yorkshire, Wakefield has 21 per 100,000 people, Leeds and Huddersfield 19, Doncaster 18, and York and Bradford 15.

Centre for Cities' chief executive Andrew Carter said: "While Coronavirus cases are concentrated in cities and large towns due to their population density, there is no single reason why some have more confirmed cases than others.

"Testing plays a key part in our understanding, and if more tests become available in the weeks ahead we are likely to get a better sense of where the virus is clustering."

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