NEW data from the Government has shown which age groups has driven the rising infection rate in Bradford over the past four weeks.

The Covid-19 infection rate in Bradford began to increase at the end of December, as cases across the country rose, especially in London, the South East, East of England and North West.

On Christmas Day the district’s infection rate fell to it’s lowest number since the summer, falling to 169.9 infections per 100,000 people, but since then increased by more than 100 to the current rate of 284.6.

A heatmap published by the Government shows which age groups saw the most infections since the end of December and reveal that young people were the age groups driving up infections throughout January.

The 20-24 year old age group saw the infection rate rise to a peak of 523.7 on January 9, and has been at more than 480 for much of the past three weeks.

The 25-29 group had infection rates over 500 for most of January, peaking at 575.7, but has begun to fall in recent days and is now below 400.

The infection rate has been above 400 for nearly the whole of January in the 30-34 age bracket, and has been in the high 300s for the 35-39 and 40-44 age ranges.

Worryingly, the 90+ age bracket also had some of the highest rates, rising above 600 at times during January, but this may be explained by the total number of people being in this bracket being much lower than other age ranges.

The lowest rates, apart from among children aged 14 and under, was encouragingly among people in their 70s and early 80s.

The infection rate for the 70-74 range peaked in the low 200s but has been below 200 for most of the month, while the 75-79 bracket has remained below 200 for the bulk of January.

For those aged 80-84 the figure had been below 200 for nearly the whole of the month so far, but has begun to rise slightly to above 200.