Redbridge coronavirus infection rate almost 70 per 100,000

Redbridge’s director of public health, Gladys Xavier, said the council had taken “quite a lot of actions to bring numbers down” at a health scrutiny committee meeting last night (October 1).

She added that “according to experts”, all other London boroughs will be in the same position as Redbridge “pretty soon”.

A London-wide Covid response plan published by other London councils states boroughs should “consider lockdown” once the rate is higher than 50 per 100,000.

Read more: Redbridge Covid rate high enough to 'consider' local lockdown

Gladys Xavier told the committee: “We have got cases all over the borough. Some wards more, some have less but generally the whole borough is affected.

“In London, we are not in that place yet (to have to lock down) but slowly our numbers are going up. Four weeks ago our rates went from 20 to 30 per 100,000.”

In the last seven days, she said, 146 new Redbridge residents had tested positive for the virus, meaning the borough had seen just under 2,000 confirmed cases in total.

She added that the rate of confirmed cases was expected to go up even further as testing capacity increased in the borough.

The council has posted leaflets to advise on minimising the spread of the virus to every household in four badly affected wards.

Yesterday, the borough’s second permanent testing centre opened in Gants Hill Library car park.

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