WE can show how the Omicron variant of Covid-19 has fuelled a rapid increase in the number of cases in Bradford in a map below.

The map, published and updated daily by the Government, shows how many cases have been recorded in an area over the past seven days, and also the rolling infection rate in an area.

The figures go back a number of months, and show how Covid is spreading around certain areas.

Over a six week period from the beginning of December until the most recent figures, from the seven days to January 5, the map shows how rapidly Covid-19 has spread in recent weeks.

This animation shows how the Covid-19 infection rate has spiralled higher and higher in the past month

Bradford Telegraph and Argus:

This spread is fuelled by the highly transmissible Omicron variant of the virus first seen in South Africa, which landed in the UK at the beginning of December before quickly spreading to all corners of the country by the end of the month.

It has caused record numbers of daily infections with strain placed on the NHS due to the number of staff having to self-isolate after contracting the new strain.

While it is less dangerous than the previous Delta variant – hospital numbers have risen slightly but the protection given by the Covid vaccine and booster jabs mean the rise is much lower than for previous variants – its rapid spread has still caused significant disruption due to staff absences and the sheer number of infections.

We've also created this interactive slider tool which shows how Covid-19 infection rates have shot up over the past six weeks, from December 1 to January 5.

In Bradford on December 1, there had been 1,495 new infections in the previous seven days, with an infection rate of 275.8 infections per 100,000 people.

Two weeks later, December 15, this had risen slightly to 1,741 new cases and an infection rate of 321.1.

But it was the next week, and then every week after, that the impact of Omicron had really hit Bradford.

By December 22 there were 2,750 new cases in a week, a 58 per cent rise, with the infection rate at 507.3. A week later, December 29, this had doubled to 5,525 new cases and an infection rate of 1,019.1, meaning one in 100 people in Bradford had Covid.

A week after that, the latest available figures, on January 5, the number has almost doubled again, with 9,756 cases recorded in one week and an infection rate of 1,799.6, meaning one in 56 people have Covid.

On January 4, the most cases recorded in a single day ever in Bradford were seen, with 1,941 new confirmed cases of the virus, followed by a further 1,803 on January 5.

On the same days 242,084 and 190,420 new cases were recorded UK-wide, respectively.