Covid-19 re-infections: the number of people getting coronavirus more than once in Greater Manchester

People are getting re-infected with Covid-19 for the second or more time across Greater Manchester, data shows.

Statistics from the UK Covid dashboard analysed by our sister title NationalWorld shows that in the most recent week of figures hundreds of people across the city-region contracted the novel coronavirus having had it previously.

Currently Greater Manchester is not close to the top of the local authority table compared to re-infection hotspots such as parts of Scotland.

However, the data for the pandemic as a whole shows a very different story and once again underlines that the city-region has had a tough time with Covid-19.

What does the recent reinfections data show?

The recent data shows how many people were re-infected with Covid-19 for a second or more time in the week up to 11 March.

Re-infection was most prevalent in Trafford with a rate of 61.5 per 100,000 residents.

The rate was 53.5 re-infections per 100,000 people in Bury and 53.4 per 100,000 in Stockport.

Of Greater Manchester’s 10 local authorities the lowest rate was 33.5 re-infections per 100,000 people in Rochdale.

These were all well down the table of re-infections for the most recent week, with the Scottish local authorities where it was most common in the week up to 11 March having rates of more than 200 re-infections per 100,000 people.

The tables cover councils in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, with no data available for Wales.

What does the data for the whole of the pandemic show?

The data for re-infections over the course of the entire pandemic shows a very different picture and again helps to shed light on the difficulties Greater Manchester has had battling the novel coronavirus.

All 10 of the city-region’s boroughs are in the top 100 local authorities for people getting Covid-19 and then subsequently getting it again, with six in the top 40.

In Manchester alone more than 10,000 people have been re-infected with the novel coronavirus during the two years the country has now been battling it.

The city centre had a rate of 1807.9 re-infections per 100,000 people, making it the 24th highest local authority in the list of councils in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Re-infection has been most common in Salford with a rate of 1879 per 100,000 residents (the 15th highest rate), followed by Wigan at 1844.8 reinfections per 100,000 people (the 19th highest rate).

The lowest rate among the 10 boroughs was Stockport, with 1489.2 reinfections per 100,000 people.

What exactly is being counted as a reinfection?

Positive cases are only counted as re-infections if they occurred at least 90 days after a person’s last positive test.

If two positive tests are closer together than this, they are counted as one episode of infection.