The latest Public Health England figures show that Covid-19 infection rates are continuing to rise across south east London, nearing 100 cases per 100,000 over the last seven days.

Friday's PHE update shows a continuing rise in virus cases across the capital despite the new tier restrictions, but cases in the south east of London remain relatively low in comparison to the rest of the UK.

Excluding Lewisham, all south east London boroughs saw a rise in the number of new cases, and all four are currently following a similar upward trend in recent weeks.

The figures, for the seven days to October 19, are based on tests carried out in laboratories (pillar one of the Government's testing programme) and in the wider community (pillar two).

They show the coronavirus infection rate, expressed as the number of new cases per 100,000 people.

Bromley is currently reporting the highest number of new cases per 100,000 people, with its Covid-19 rate jumping from 75.2 a week ago to 94.8.

Greenwich's Covid-19 rate has also risen from 85.2 to 91.3 after recording 136 new cases in the past week.

Bexley has seen its Covid-19 rate rise from 66.9 to 88.2 after 219 new cases, whilst Lewisham saw a slight decline from 82.1 to 80.8.

Whilst the rise is worrying, the boroughs are somewhat behind the worst in the capital such as Ealing (181.7) and Hackney (167.1).

Nearby, Dartford has recorded a rate of 67.5, Croydon 84.6 and Southwark 104.4.

READ MORE: London now has one of the lowest R rates in the country

In the north, infection rates in Merseyside reached a whopping 662.2 per 100,000 in the past seven days, but despite this, the numbers are continuing to fall in some of the areas with the highest rates in England.

In Knowsley, Merseyside, 999 new cases were recorded in the seven days to October 19, the equivalent of 662.2 cases per 100,000 people - the highest rate in England.

But this is down from 719.9 cases per 100,000 in the seven days to October 12.

Blackburn with Darwen in Lancashire has the second highest rate, up from 466.3 to 634.6, with 950 new cases.

Rossendale, also in Lancashire, is in third place, having seen the largest increase in its rate from 362.3 to 607.1, with 434 new cases.

But Liverpool and Nottingham, in fourth and fifth place respectively, have both seen significant drops in their rates.

In Liverpool the rate has fallen from 690.7 to 571.6, with 2,847 new cases.

Nottingham saw the largest drop in the country, down from 895.2 to 563.8, with 1,877 new cases.

Case rates have also continued to decrease in the cities of Newcastle, Exeter, Sheffield, Manchester and Oxford.

The list has been calculated by the PA news agency and is based on Public Health England data published on October 23 on the Government's coronavirus dashboard.