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Wigan has seen its coronavirus infection rate double in 12 days, the latest data reveals.
Meanwhile, nine of the ten districts of Greater Manchester have seen further increases in their rates.
The rate in Manchester continues to decline, but now appears to be slowing down.
The number of cases is increasing faster in Bury and Wigan, which today surpassed the threshold of 400 cases per 100,000 inhabitants for the first time, the latest figures from Public Health England show.
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Wigan registered 1,329 cases in the last seven days, almost a third (428 cases) more than the previous one.
Its rate has doubled in the space of 12 days, going from 196.65 (643 cases) in the week ending September 30 to 404.4 (1,329 cases) in the week ending October 11.
At the end of August, the municipality had the lowest rate in the region and became the first to break out of local lockdown restrictions.
However, it now has the third highest rate in the region and today became one of the six counties that had its highest rate so far since the start of the pandemic.
Rates are likely to have been higher during the April peak, when only the first pillar hospital testing was underway.
The most recent data is calculated using community tests for both Pillar 1 and Pillar 2.
The number of cases in Bury also rose by just over a third, to around 180 cases, week-over-week figures show with its rate slowly approaching 400, now 384.8 per 100,000.
It also seems likely that Salford will exceed the same threshold shortly after recording 1,000 cases in the last seven days of data, an increase of almost a quarter (183 cases) from the previous week.
The rate in Rochdale, which remains the second highest, continues to rise, at 27 percent (205 cases) week-over-week.
In Manchester, the rate is down by around 15 percent, less than in previous days.
However, at 473 it is still the highest in the region and one of the highest in the country.
Stockport still has the lowest rate in the region, although it is close to the 300 mark, standing at 296.2 after 869 cases in the last seven days, 203 more than the previous one.
The average infection rate for the ten counties is now 384.4, well above the national average of 160.8.
The figures come after a day of bickering over whether local lockdown rules will be tightened.
A move to Level 3 of the government’s new Covid alert system had been reported to be imminent.
(Image: Department of Health)
However, in a statement in the House of Commons today, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said a final decision had not been made and that talks with local leaders were ongoing.
At an explosive press conference this afternoon, the Mayor of Greater Manchester stood firm saying that the region could not accept new restrictions that would cause enormous economic damage but would not guarantee to stop the spread of the virus.
Slides were released earlier tonight and shown to politicians in the region during a briefing with the country’s two deputy medical directors.
They included color maps that highlighted the large increases in infection rates in the region in recent weeks, and also a graph that showed a large increase in hospital admissions and that the number of new falls in people 60 years and older was had shot over 200 per year. 100,000 inhabitants.
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