Covid-19: one in 15 people in Greater Manchester tested positive for Covid last week

Between one in 15 and one in 20 people across Greater Manchester are thought to have had Covid-19 towards the end of March, data has revealed.

As cases continue to rise across the country the Office for National Statistics (ONS) released estimates of how likely it was for someone living in each local authority in the city-region to have contracted the novel coronavirus.

It comes from a infection survey study which is being led by the ONS and the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) and assisted by a number of higher education institutions, including The University of Manchester.

What does the data show for Greater Manchester?

The data models a percentage of people who had Covid-19 in a set time period and then works out a ratio of how many people in a given local authority had the novel coronavirus.

The latest figures released are for the period between 20 March and 26 March.

In Bury, the rate was one in 18 people testing positive for Covid-19 in that period (5.7%).

In Bolton and Tameside it was one in 15; in Salford, Manchester and Trafford it was one in 16, while in Stockport, Wigan and Rochdale it was one in 17.

Finally the ratio was one in 20 people testing positive in that week in Oldham.

Areas which have the same ratio will have different percentages to account for their differing population sizes.

Across the 10 boroughs of Greater Manchester the percentage of people thought to have tested positive in the model ranged from five per cent in Oldham to 6.7% in Bolton.

What does the ONS say about this data?

The ONS reckons that in the week up to 26 March around one in 13 people across England tested positive for Covid-19.

That means that in that week just over four million people across England had the novel coronavirus.

The percentage of people with infections compatible with the Omicron BA.2 variant also increased in England in the week ending 26 March.

The data refers to people living in private homes and does not include care homes, hospitals or other communal locations.

It uses positive results from PCR tests to build the models.