Case rates of Covid-19 are still on the rise this Christmas as the Omicron variant is rapidly spreading.

The latest Covid-19 case rates have been released for local areas in the UK and infections are rising in areas across the UK.

The figures, for the seven days to December 18, are based on the number of people who have tested positive for Covid-19 in a lab-reported test plus, in England, positive rapid lateral flow tests that do not have a negative confirmatory lab-based polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test within 72 hours.

The rate is expressed as the number of new cases per 100,000 people.

Data for the most recent four days (December 19-22) has been excluded as it is incomplete and does not reflect the true number of cases.

Of the 377 local areas in the UK, 353 (94%) have seen a week-on-week rise in rates and 24 (6%) have seen a fall. Per cent In the past seven days, Southwark has seen the highest increase in Covid infections in south east London – with 7,652 new cases.

All areas in south east London have seen an increase of new covid cases.

Bexley

The cases in Bexley have increased from 677.5 (1,689 cases) to 1531.5 (3,818 cases).

Bromley

The case rate in Bromley has risen from 719.5 (2,394 cases) to 1678.4 (5,585 cases).

Dartford

The cases in Dartford have risen from 830.3 (947 cases) to 1485.3 (1694 cases).

Greenwich

Greenwich has seen the case rate increase from 765.7 (2,213 cases) to 1774.2 (5,128 cases).

Lewisham

The cases in Lewisham have increased from 775.6 (2,368 cases) to 2103.4 (6,422 cases).

Southwark

Southwark’s rates have soared from 826.5 (2,645 cases) to 2,391.1 (7,652 cases).

Lambeth in London continues to have the highest rate in the UK, with 9,378 new cases in the seven days to December 18 – the equivalent of 2,914.1 per 100,000 people.

The five UK areas with the biggest week-on-week rises are all in London: Lambeth (up from 842.4 to 2,914.1) Wandsworth (813.7 to 2,778.6) Southwark (826.5 to 2,391.1) Islington (726.7 to 2,260.2) Hammersmith & Fulham (827.6 to 2,258.9).