Around a quarter of all suspected coronavirus cases reported to English and Welsh councils were in Bromley for a month-long period, figures reveal.

Registered medical practitioners have a statutory duty to notify their local authority or local Health Protection Team of suspected cases of certain infectious diseases, such as Covid-19.

Public Health England collects these notifications and publishes analyses of local and national trends every week.

The figures reveal that from April 27 to May 24 there were 4,022 suspected cases reported to local authorities in England and Wales, 1,080 of which were in Bromley.

Bromley’s reported cases jumped in the week beginning April 27, to 170 of 664 cases nationally, an increase from 104 the previous week.

In the following three weeks Bromley reported 246 of 977 national cases, 382 of 1301 national cases and 282 of 1080 national cases.

Cases dropped the following week to 13 of 421 national cases.

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The explanation behind the extremely high rate of reported cases in Bromley is unclear.

A spokesperson for Public Health England confirmed that the figures show Bromley accounted for a quarter of reported cases over the period.

They clarified that Public Health England is notified by registered medical practitioners of ‘suspected’ cases of COVID-19 – i.e. they are not lab confirmed.

The spokesperson added: "A high number of notifications does not necessarily translate into high levels of lab-confirmed positive cases – i.e. Bromley does not represent 25% of lab-confirmed positivecases in the UK during this period."

The high rate of reporting could be down to doctors in the borough being particularly diligent in referring any suspected case.

Bromley Council was contacted for comment.

The weekly reports can be viewed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/notifiable-diseases-weekly-reports-for-2020