Berkshire in lockdown - Latest Covid-19 infection rates for each area of county

Berkshire - along with the rest of England - is now entering its third period of national lockdown in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Boris Johnson last night announced the toughest restrictions since the start of the first national coronavirus lockdown in a bid to tackle the spread of the virus.

In an address to the nation, the Prime Minister said the new variant – which is 50 per cent to 70 per cent more transmissible – was spreading in a “frustrating and alarming” manner.

“As I speak to you tonight, our hospitals are under more pressure from Covid than at any time since the start of the pandemic,” he said.

The latest figures from Public Health England, released shortly before Mr Johnson's announcement, show more than 5,800 new cases of Covid-19 were confirmed across Berkshire in the seven days to December 30.

Slough continued to have both the highest number of new cases, 1,497, and the highest rolling infection rate - 1,001 per 100,000 people.

Bracknell Forest had the second highest infection rate - 780.1 per 100,000 - while the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead had the second most new cases at 1,005.

Areas by rolling infection rate per 100,000 people (and the number of new coronavirus cases in the seven days up to Wednesday, December 30):

Slough: 1,001.1 (1,497 new cases)

Bracknell Forest: 780.1 (956 new cases)

Windsor and Maidenhead: 663.7 (1,005 new cases)

Reading : 548.9 (888 new cases)

Wokingham: 547.0 (936 new cases)

West Berkshire: 377.4 (598 new cases)

Boris Johnson suggested England could “steadily” move out of lockdown from mid-February.

Urging caution about the timetable, he said: “If our understanding of the virus doesn’t change dramatically, once again, if the rollout of the vaccine programme continues to be successful, if deaths start to fall as the vaccine takes effect and – critically – if everyone plays their part by following the rules, then I hope we can steadily move out of lockdown, reopening schools after the February half-term and starting cautiously to move regions down the tiers.”