Blackburn with Darwen is overtaking Leicester as England's coronavirus hotspot as cases double, official figures show, triggering fresh warnings a local lockdown could be imposed.
The area in Lancashire - where new measures are already in place to curb the spread of Covid-19 - had the highest infection rate in England in the seven days up to Friday (July 17), according to the latest official data from NHS Digital.
Blackburn with Darwen had 79.2 Covid-19 cases per 100,000 residents as new infections almost doubled in the past week. There were 118 new confirmed infections in the week up to Friday, compared with 63 in the previous seven days.