Post Desk : Coronavirus is spreading across London with more than 1,000 new cases a day now, official figures reveal.

They show how the epidemic is hitting boroughs across the city and is no longer mainly affecting east London.

Sixteen areas now have infection rates of more than 60 new cases per 100,000 people in the week to October 2.

Part of the increase in cases is understood to be due to more testing in recent days finding more people with the virus.

But the disease is also believed to be spreading, including in boroughs which previously had low or medium rates.

Redbridge still has the biggest outbreak with 286 cases in the seven days to October 2, giving a rate of 93.7.

Strikingly, the disease has grown significantly in Richmond-upon-Thames which is now the second worst affected area with 171 new cases in the week at a rate of 86.4.

Hackney and City of London area is the third hardest hit, with a rate of 84.6 and 246 new cases, though the vast bulk of them are understand to be in Hackney rather than the Square Mile.

Haringey, Ealing, Tower Hamlets and Barnet all have a rate of at least 70.

Harrow, Hounslow, Newham, Brent, Islington, Hammersmith and Fulham,Waltham Forest, Havering and Lambeth are all above 60.

The lowest in the capital is Sutton, with 63 new cases in the week at a rate of 30.5.

London was declared an area of Covid-19 concern on September 25 when there were just over 600 new cases a day.

Covid-19 levels in London are still far below many areas in the North and Midlands.

The rate in Manchester has soared, with 2,927 new cases recorded in the seven days to October 2 – the equivalent of 529.4 cases per 100,000 people.

This is up from 246.4 per 100,000 in the seven days to September 25.

Knowsley has the second highest rate, which is up from 324.1 to 498.5, with 752 new cases.

Liverpool is in third place, where the rate has also increased sharply, from 306.4 to 487.1 with 2,426 new cases.

Other areas recording big jumps in their seven-day rates include Newcastle upon Tyne, Nottingham, Leeds and Sheffield.

The latest figures were published as health officials raced to trace tens of thousands of “contacts” of people who have caught coronavirus but whose cases were not swiftly included to the test-and-trace system due to a data transfer blunder.

Ministers admit that the mistake means more people may catch the virus.

Council leaders in London, and other parts of the country, as well as ministers, are appealing to the public to follow social distancing and good hygiene rules to try to stem the rise in Covid cases