SWINDON has had the highest coronavirus case rate in the south west for almost three weeks.

The town overtook Bournemouth on February 23 – and has remained top of the table ever since.

Figures published yesterday showed a new case rate of 76.1 per 100,00, significantly higher than second spot Bristol where the case rate was 47.3 per 100,000.

Why is Swindon's rate so high?

On Friday, the borough’s director of public health said the higher case rate could be down to a number of factors.  

Steve Maddern told reporters: “Our rates have always been higher. Swindon is very different than the rest of the south west, so it’s difficult to compare us because when you look at the rest of the south west, it’s largely rural – and even in those urban areas like Plymouth or Bristol, the demographic is different.

“I think Swindon is a very compact town, and we have more BAME communities than the rest of the region and I think the challenge for us is how we adapt our intervention and our messaging in a really diverse way.”

Case numbers are falling across most Swindon postcodes except SN1 – the town centre, Old Town and Broadgreen.

Mr Maddern said: “We still continue to face challenges there. If we look at the continual higher case rate within our SN1 community, that is where the majority of our BAME communities are.

“We know that within those communities there are challenges, multigenerational housing is one of them, and we know that certain occupations carry higher Covid risk with them, including social care and manual workers.

“We have consistently engaged with our BAME communities throughout the pandemic because we know BAME communities are less likely to take the vaccine but are at more risk of Covid.”

Graphs show that Bournemouth experienced a significant spike in cases in January, although numbers fell drastically in late January and February.

Swindon’s case rate has increased slightly over the past week.