Sheffield has highest rate of confirmed coronavirus cases outside London

Data collated by the Centre for Cities thinktank showed that as of today, March 31, Sheffield had 62 confirmed cases per 100,000 population - behind only London with 70 cases per 100,000. The city had a total of 428 confirmed cases as of Monday and there had been 20 deaths by today.

In contrast, Hull has the lowest figure of the 33 large cities and towns analysed for the study with four cases per 100,000 people as of today.

Barnsley had 41 cases per 100,000, Wakefield 21, Leeds and Huddersfield 19, Doncaster 18 and York 15.

The report said: “The ratio of cases confirmed in Sheffield has rapidly increased over the last few days, more rapidly than other cities of similar size.

“Birmingham also saw a rapid increase in recent days, with a similar growth rate to London - despite having lower confirmed cases per 100,000.

“London and Birmingham have a high number of cases per 100,000 population, but that is not the case for every big city in the UK: Derby, Milton Keynes and Luton have a higher ratio than Liverpool or Manchester.”

It added: “The lockdown policies that the Government have introduced to slow the spread of coronavirus have had a huge economic impact.

“Places with stronger highly-skilled information-based economies - mostly in the Greater South East - have been able to more easily adapt to working from home, ensuring that some parts of the economy continues to function.

“However, other areas - mostly in the North and Midlands - with weaker low-skill service-based economies have been less able to do this.

“These areas outside the Greater South East will require more direct Government interventions to support their economies once the immediate public health crisis is over.”

Greg Fell, director of Public Health Sheffield, said last week that the data for the city was “simply a reflection that there is more testing happening here currently than in some other areas and so by default we know about more positive cases”.

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