MORE than one in every 100 of the county’s ten-to-14-year-olds tested positive for Covid-19 last week.

Latest figures show that on average a total of 1,216 per 100,000 people aged between 10 and 14 in Worcestershire had tested positive for Covid in the week up to October 29.

The five-to-nine-year-olds and the 15-to-19-year-olds age groups also saw cases soar in the week recording the second and third highest infection rates among all age groups in the county.

The figures, provided by Public Health England, show which age groups in Worcestershire had seen the highest number of Covid infections on average in the last week of October.

Cases were highest among the three age groups in which pupils were returning to school and college after half term.

A total of 646 cases per 100,000 people were recorded among the county’s five-to-nine-year-olds with 674 cases per 100,000 people in the 15-to-19-year-old group recorded – the second highest in Worcestershire.

Infection rates were also high among those in their 40s in Worcestershire with 589 cases recorded per 100,000 people aged between 40 and 44 and 576 cases per 100,000 people aged between 45 and 49 testing positive in the week.

The lowest infection rates were among those in their 70s, 80s and 90s with the lowest number of average cases recorded in the 85-to-89-years-old age group at 71 cases per 100,000 people.

Overall, the number of new Covid cases recorded in Worcestershire fell by 20 per cent to 2,679 for the week up to October 29.

However, the number of new cases recorded in Malvern Hills increased by just over 10 per cent to 339 and fell by 25 per cent in Wychavon, which includes Evesham, Pershore and Droitwich, to 547.

Despite the fall by a quarter, the number of new infections recorded in Wychavon in the week was still the highest among the county’s six districts.

New infections fell by a third in Bromsgrove to 452 cases for the week and cases also fell in Redditch by 30 per cent to 368.

Cases fell in Wyre Forest by just over 20 per cent to 499 in the week up to October 29.