The Covid infection rate has fallen in Oxford for the first time in weeks but cases are still rising in other parts of the county.

Oxfordshire County Council’s weekly update today has confirmed there were 580 new positive coronavirus tests in the county for the seven days to October 16 (Friday).

It was down on the same time last week, when 630 new infections were recorded and which had been an increase from 352 new cases the previous week and 152 the week before that.

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In Oxford, cases fell from 231 in the seven days to October 9, to 184 this week.

It is unclear how this fits with university cases, however, with Oxford University revealing on Monday its own testing service had identified 197 infections during the same period.

The county council has been contacted about whether Oxford University’s own testing is excluded from its figures.

Oxford Brookes, meanwhile, also announced today nearly 70 new cases at the university.

These are the current weekly rates across the county;

Oxford Mail:

The council no longer includes an alert system with the data, with all parts of the county at ‘red alert’ last week due to cases being above 50 cases per 100,000 people.

This remains the case, though the county is in Tier 1 of the Government’s new restrictions.

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It means national measures apply, including the Rule of Six, and a 10pm curfew for pubs and restaurants.

While the overall infection rate for the county is down slightly to 83.9, it has gone up in South Oxfordshire, Vale of White Horse and West Oxfordshire.