Covid rates in the York area quadrupled over the month of December, figures show.

The figures for every local authority area in the UK show that one in every 58 people tested positive for Covid in the latest seven-day period.

It comes as Boris Johnson issued a warning to those who believed the pandemic is over, describing their beliefs as “profoundly wrong”.

In the seven days up to December 31, the Covid case rate across York was 1,647.8 cases per 100,000 people.

The figures are based on the number of people who have tested positive for Covid-19 in lab-reported tests, plus positive rapid lateral flow tests that do not have a negative confirmatory lab-based polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test within 72 hours.

In the seven days up to December 31 there were 3477 cases in the York area - that's 2,643 more than the seven days up to December 3, 2021.

In early December, York's Covid rates were 395.2 per 100,000 people.

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The Government data used to analyse York's Covid case rate covers Lower Tier Local Authorities (LTLA).

But how does that compare to case rates across the rest of the country?

The worst rates in the UK are in Derry City & Strabane in Northern Ireland.

The most recent figures show that the area recorded 6,246 new Covid cases, leaving it with a rate of 4,133.4 cases per 100,000 people.

In Wales the worst Covid rates are found in Rhondda Cynon Taf, which has a case rate of 2,804.4 cases per 100,000 people following 6,783 new cases.

In the seven days up to December 31, the worst rate (2,573.2 cases per 100,000 people) in England was in St Helens, while the highest rate in Scotland was found in Inverclyde where 1,964 cases saw a case rate of 2,548.7.