There has been a huge spike in coronavirus cases across Somerset over the past 24 hours.

Today (October 23) 184 infections were recorded in six areas of the county,

Today’s figures are 18 times higher than those recorded at the end of September, which was about 10 per day.

For the second day in a row, North Somerset has seen the highest increase with 62 new cases.

Bath and North East Somerset also saw significant increases with 55 positive lab tests overnight.

Meanwhile, Sesame has increased by 25 with 24 new confirmed infections in Somerset West and Taunton.

The number of coronavirus deaths in the UK has risen to 224, with 20,530 new cases confirmed.

The Department of Health and Social Care has released a grim picture of the 179 fatalities announced yesterday.

That’s almost three times more than two weeks ago and six times more than a month before September 23rd.

Local fragmentation of positive test results

• Bath and Northeast Somerset – 1,240 (+55)
• Mendip – 378 (+8)
• North Somerset – 1,615 (+62)
• Sejemur – 639 (+25)
• Somerset West and Taunton – 595 (+24)
• South Somerset – 569 (+10)

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And the rate

The latest figures show that coronavirus infections are spreading elsewhere in the southwest of the UK.

The growth rate, which reflects how fast the number of infections is changing day by day, dropped slightly from +5 to +9 percent. This compares with last week’s +6 and +10 percent.

And for England it’s almost doubled, down from +3 to +5 per cent this week.

Although our region remains between 1.3 and 1.6.

This means that on average, 13 out of every 10 people infected with the virus become infected.

Nationally it has dropped from 1.2 to 1.4, compared to last week’s 1.3 and 1.5.