CORONAVIRUS cases are soaring in every London borough raising fears of a full lockdown with pubs shut and a ban on meeting up with friends.
East London has been hit the hardest by infections but other parts of the capital have also experienced an increase.
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Among them is Boris Johnson’s constituency of Uxbridge and South Ruislip in West London.
Covid rates in London are still lower than the worst hotspots in the North but are steadily going up with hospital admissions also on the rise.
It comes as almost one quarter of the country are now under coronavirus restrictions as infections continue to increase across Britain.
Across London there were 2,865 new confirmed cases of covid-19 in the week up to September 25, the Evening Standard reports.
This is up from 1,906 the previous week and 2,305 a week earlier – with a record number of people testing positive on September 22, at 522.
However, community chiefs are concerned that testing centre chaos means the real number of infections could actually be a lot higher.
COVID-19 HOTSPOT
East London is proving to be hotspot for coronavirus in the city.
In Redbridge, there were 208 confirmed cases in the week to September 24 – up from 139 cases and a rate of 45.5 in the week before.
Nearby in the borough of Barking and Dagenham, 123 people tested positive in the week to the 24th, compared to 70 cases in the previous week.
While the latest figures for Tower Hamlets show 152 cases with 157 infections in Newham.
Hillingdon, the borough in the PM’s constituency, saw cases almost double to 136 cases.
In Ealing there were 133 cases, Brent 128, Barnet 123, Waltham Forest 113, Hounslow 112, Havering 110, Southwark 107, Enfield 105 and Wandsworth 100.
The capital was made an “area of concern” on Friday but despite fears the city could be placed in draconian lockdown restrictions, there has been no official indication this could be the next step.
Downing Street said it was “puzzled” by the reports, and a source said there was “nothing imminent on London or anywhere else”.
But the Labour leader of Redbridge council, Cllr Jas Athwal has called for far stricter measures to stem the rise in cases including stopping households mixing.
He told Radio 4: "Mixing face-to-face should be stopped immediately…we are seeing the pandemic take hold."
Mr Athwal has also warned that a 44 per cent fall in testing London between August and September could also hide infections spiralling.
Mixing face-to-face should be stopped immediately…we are seeing the pandemic take hold
It comes after Brits were met with long queues at centres around the country amid a testing shambles.
The councillor said: “A testing centre in the heart of Ilford was testing 700 to 800 people a day and it’s one of the biggest centres in London.
“However, recently it’s only been testing 100 to 150 people per day because of capacity issues at the national laboratory so what we’re seeing is the numbers go down.
"And of course if you’re losing that kind of capacity the figures are going to be distorted and they’re probably going to be a lot worse than what we’re being shown across the whole of London.”
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