THERE were 20 new cases of coronavirus reported in Oxford in the last 48 hours, according to figures from Public Health England.

As of 9am today, there were another 11 positive tests in the city, making up the majority of the 17 new cases in Oxfordshire.

Figures unavailable on Thursday due to problems with the Government's coronavirus dashboard also now show a further 32 cases of Covid-19 reported in the county in the 24 hours to 9am that day.

Of these, nine were in Oxford. The city's total is now 1,162.

Across the UK a further 6,874 cases were announced today.

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The most recent weekly infection rate for Oxford, accurate as of September 21, shows the city at amber alert with 46 new cases in the prior seven days at a rate of 30.2.

However, there was a dip in new cases after the city was announced to be at amber alert last week.

Oxfordshire County Council, which takes the rolling weekly rate each Friday as an indicator, currently puts Oxford at a yellow alert based on a rate of 21.6 due to 33 new cases in the previous seven days.

A note on the council’s website said: “To show a consistent picture, this site reports on the nationally available data for the week ending Friday.

"It is currently updated weekly by Wednesday morning, at which time the data are less subject to change.”

Data released on Friday by the Government Office for Science and the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) shows the estimate for R is has gone up to between 1.2 and 1.5.

The higher R is above one, the faster the epidemic is growing.