Covid-19 in London
The prevalence of new cases in the 32 boroughs of Greater London
Some older browsers/devices may be unable to load the interactive visualisation with London details. Assuming you can view it, you can examine the evolution of the case rates by clicking (or tapping) on the timeline at the bottom of the chart. Then you can slide either end point of the timeline if you wish. You can add a comparison with some reporting area(s) outside London by clicking “⊕ Add region” and selecting your desired option(s). You may want to simplify the chart by removing some of the boroughs, which can be achieved by clicking “⊕ Add region” and deselecting some of the checked boxes.
Extracted from Our World in Data’s visualisations of the pandemic in the UK, the interactive chart above shows the latest prevalence of covid-19 by London borough. New case rates in the worst affected boroughs are around four times higher than those in the least affected boroughs (up from 2½ times higher a couple of weeks ago).
London has fallen from being the worst affected UK region in late December and early January to being among the least affected English regions now. When this page was last updated new case rates were continuing to fall in most metropolitan boroughs, with the notable exceptions of Hounslow and Merton.
In the early stages of the present wave, geographical factors seemed to be playing the biggest part in the variations: the counties of Kent and Essex were particularly badly affected in November and December 2020 and the London boroughs closest to those counties undoubtedly experienced high rates of local transmission. The relevant boroughs included Bexley, Havering, Barking & Dagenham and Redbridge. However, other factors now seem to have assumed greater significance. The boroughs currently topping the table tend to be significantly poorer than those at the bottom – and to have higher proportions of ethnic minority residents, especially those of south Asian heritage. There are also considerable variations within boroughs. In the London Borough of Ealing, for example, case rates in Southall are much higher than they are in Ealing itself.
In most of the London boroughs, new case rates started to fall during the first week of the new year and hospital admissions began to decline around 9/10 January. Soon afterwards, death rates began to plateau and they are now declining nationwide, and especially in London, which is presently several days ahead of the country as a whole in terms of its recovery from the most recent wave of covid-19.
Text last updated 22 February 2021. The charts are automatically updated daily, usually around 5pm, UK time.