North West Leicestershire now has one of the lowest seven-day infection rates in the county.

From being an area of concern to health chiefs earlier this year - with Ashby identified as a Covid 'hotspot' - rates are now falling rapidly.

Only Harborough, with a seven-day rate of 11.7 cases per 100,000 of the population, is lower than North West Leicestershire which today (Thursday) returned a rate of 27 per 100,000 people.

There were a further 73 new Covid-19 cases across the city and county.

In Leicester, there have been 39 people who tested positive in the last 24 hours, while the remaining 34 were spread across Leicestershire.

Broken down to district and borough level Blaby added six new cases, and there were nine in both Charnwood and North West Leicestershire.

Harborough and Melton each added three new cases and there were two confirmed in both Hinckley and Bosworth and Oadby and Wigston.

The new cases, updated at 4pm, mean that the total number of cases across the city and county since the start of the pandemic area by area are :

• Leicester: 36,290
• Blaby: 7,024
• Charnwood: 12,429
• Harborough: 5,071
• Hinckley and Bosworth: 6,108
• Melton: 2,681
• North West Leicestershire: 6,055
• Oadby and Wigston: 4,938

The latest seven-day infection rates, area by area, are:

• Leicester: 74.8 cases per 100,000 (265 cases in the last seven days)
• Blaby: 42.4 cases per 100,000 (43)
• Charnwood: 38.7 cases per 100,000 (72)
• Harborough: 11.7 cases per 100,000 (11)
• Hinckley and Bosworth: 37.1 cases per 100,000 (42)
• Melton: 62.5 cases per 100,000 (32)
• North West Leicestershire: 27 cases per 100,000 (28)
• Oadby and Wigston: 50.9 cases per 100,000 (29)