Coronavirus infection rates in south east London remain some of the highest in the country, with all four main boroughs recording a significant rise in new cases just in the last week.

Public Health England's latest figures, accurate as of Tuesday, January 5, show that infections are continuing to surge across the capital as we begin to feel the impact of Christmas combined with the new 'highly infectious' variant.

Greenwich and Bromley have this week joined Bexley in surpassing 1,000 cases per 100,000 people, and a total of 12,407 new cases were recorded in the four south east London boroughs.

The figures, for the seven days to January 1, are based on tests carried out in laboratories (pillar one of the Government's testing programme) and in the wider community (pillar two).

The rate is expressed as the number of new cases per 100,000 people, and of the 315 local areas in England, 310 (98%) have seen a rise in case rates.

The highest infection rate in south London belongs to Bexley, with a whopping 1197.0 cases per 100,000 people in the last week, up from 1025.8 last week.

The borough, which has held the highest infection rated for nearly two months now, is currently the 15th worst-affected area in the country, and recorded 2972 new cases in the last seven days.

Close behind, Bromley has continued to see an alarming rise in cases and is now another national Covid-19 hotspot after recording an infection rate of 1089.0.

This has risen from 843.1 after 3,619 new cases were reported in just a week.

Greenwich is the third south east London borough to surpass 1,000 cases per 100,000.

The borough has recorded 2,956 new Covid-19 cases and currently has an infection rate of 1026.6, up from 711.9.

Lewisham, for a long time one of the lowest rates in England, has since followed its neighbours, experiencing a number of outbreaks.

The borough's infection rate has risen from 706.6 to 935.1, with 2860 new cases.

Nearby, Dartford currently has the 12th worst infection rate in the country with 1215.7.

Sutton is the worst borough in south west London with 1090.9, whilst Croydon recorded 1006.7 and Merton 1024.5

Barking & Dagenham in London continues to have the highest rate in England, with 3,216 new cases recorded in the seven days to January 1 - the equivalent of 1,510.5 cases per 100,000 people.

This is up from 976.5 in the seven days to December 25.

Thurrock in Essex has the second highest rate, up from 1,217.2 to 1,471.8, with 2,566 new cases.

Castle Point, also in Essex, is in third place, where the rate has increased from 1,083.3 to 1,419.6 with 1,283 new cases.

The areas recording the biggest week-on-week jumps are Carlisle (up from 349.7 to 932.1 with 1,013 new cases); Rushmoor in Hampshire (up from 657.5 to 1,229.4 with 1,163 new cases); and the Isle of Wight (up from 215.8 to 785.8, with 1,114 new cases).

The list has been calculated by the PA news agency based on Public Health England data published on January 5 on the Government's coronavirus dashboard.