Omicron Covid variant: six Birmingham neighbourhoods in the UK top 50 with fastest rising Covid rates

Six Birmingham neighbourhoods are among the top 50 in the UK with the highest rises in Covid cases, figures have revealed.

With one city neighbourhood having the second highest growth rate out of all the 6791 in the country.

The NHS divides the city into neighbourhoods within wards to identify the scale of the spread of Covid, with the Omicron variant now spreading across the country.

The six neighbourhoods with the highest rates in Birmingham are:

Moor Geen and Cannon Hill - second highest with an increase of  399.8% up from 59.2 cases per 100,000 people to 295.9.

Sparkbrook - fifth highest with an increase of 339.7% from 59.2 cases per 100,000 people to 260.3

Handsworth West -  twenty-sixth highest with an increase of 210.9%, from 95.2 cases per 100,000 people to 296.0.

Perry Beeches West - thirty-first highest with an increase of 200.1% from 159.3 cases per 100,000 people to 478.0.

Hockley and Jewellery Quarter - thirty-sixth highest with an increase of 199.9%, from 83.1 cases per 100,000 people to 249.2.

Handsworth East - forty-third highest with an increase of 189.0% from 98.1 cases per 100,000 people to 283.5.

Speaking at a No 10 press conference, prime minister Boris Johnson thanked NHS staff and volunteers and urged the public to come forward to take up their booster jabs.

While the director of NHS England Dr Nikki Kanani pleaded for volunteers to come forward and support health workers in delivering the vaccine, imploring: “We need your help.”

Chief medical officer Chris Whitty said Omicron was moving at a “phenomenal speed” and the UK would see “records be broken a lot in the next few weeks".

Every adult in the country can book their booster jab which is also being offered at walk-in clinics, including  New Street Station, Moseley Community Hub and City Hospital. You can see the latest list here

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