A small town in the north-west of England has become the UK’s coronavirus hotspot. Despite its out-of-the-way location – with the nearest motorway a 45-minute drive away – Barrow-in-Furness, in Cumbria, has at least 552 confirmed cases of Covid-19, according to latest reports.
With a population of just 67,000, it has a rate of just over 882 cases per 100,000 of population. That’s four times the rate just across the water in Northern Ireland.
Barrow-in-Furness' death rate is around 91 for every 100,000, one of the worst outside of London. According to local reports, its first Covid-19 death was of a person who had attended a party before the lockdown was imposed on March 23.