The weekly rate of new coronavirus cases has jumped in Watford and St Albans.

Latest figures shows that St Albans is now among the 25 local authorities with the highest rates of Covid-19 after a rise in new cases within the last week.

The data takes into account those who have been tested in hospitals, as well as in the community - for example at a mobile testing centre or at home.

The rate itself is expressed as the number of new cases per 100,000 population.

St Albans had an increase of 6.8 cases per 100,000 people on the week ending June 28, to 13.6 on the week ending July 5.

As for Watford, the jump was on a lesser scale from 2.1 on the week ending June 28 to 7.2 on the week ending July 5.

With a population of around 100,000 people in Watford, this suggests around seven people living in Watford tested positive for Covid-19 within the last week.

However, these areas do not necessarily have the highest rate overall in England.

Many northern areas including Leicester and around York have the highest rate, but St Albans is the 24th highest in the country.

Read more: List of coronavirus testing centres in Hertfordshire

On July 4, pubs and restaurants were among the many venues that reopened for the first time since the lockdown.

Any impact of these lifting of restrictions could be seen in next week's figures.