Sussex coronavirus cases: Animation shows meteoric rise since December as lockdown begins
At the end of November, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a move to the three-tiered system that categorised areas as medium, high or very high risk.
But cases continued to soar and, soon after, a fourth tier was announced – first for parts of Kent and East Sussex, before encompassing all of the South East and much of the south coast.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdThe worrying spike in numbers has been driven by a new, more contagious form of the virus which began sweeping across the South before moving into the rest of the country.
Up until a few months ago, areas such as Hastings boasted some of the lowest numbers of coronavirus cases.
But as this graphic shows, once the new variant took hold it got out of hand, fast, with the infection rate now dwarfing the national average in almost every part of Sussex.
The rollout of the Oxford-AstraZeneca and PfizerBioNTech vaccines has provided a potential light at the end of the tunnel, but these figures show how quickly the virus can get out of control if left unchecked.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdSussex has now, along with the rest of the UK, been placed into a lockdown similar to the one that started in March.
Arguably the largest change is the closure of all schools and colleges.
A head teacher has reacted to the announcement - Sussex coronavirus lockdown: Head teacher blasts ‘very frustrating’ school closures U-turn