A MAP of coronavirus cases shows how the rate of Covid-19 cases has risen in Redditch.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said Britain is at a “tipping point” and said "more restrictive measures" could be introduced to tackle the rising rates of positive cases.

The warning was made after Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the second wave of the virus had hit the UK.

This came as the Government’s chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance and England’s chief medical adviser Professor Chris Whitty hosted a coronavirus briefing earlier today, featuring a stark warning for the rate of infection into the winter months.

Speaking during the TV briefing, Professor Whitty presented two maps tracking Covid hotspots - one revealing the rate of transmission and another revealing the change in the rate of transmission.

For both maps, the darker the shade used, the higher the rate of transmission or the greater the rate of increase.

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So how are coronavirus cases spreading in Redditch?

The first map from the government briefing shows the total rate per 100,000 people of lab-confirmed cases in the seven days leading up to September 9. Here, Redditch scores fairly low - between 16.04 and 38.52 - which places it in the second lowest category for overall rate of cases confirmed that week.

This compares to a rate of between 28.53 and 47.23 in neighbouring Bromsgrove, and between 0 and 16.03 in Wyre Forest.

The second map, however, showed the rate of transmission had increased in Redditch per 100,000 members of the population compared to the previous week.

Redditch and Wyre Forest saw an increase of between 1 and 10 in the rate of transmission, while Bromsgrove saw an increase of between 11 and 25.

Speaking about the two maps at today's briefing, Mr Whitty said: “What you can see on the left side is that at the moment the very high rates of transmission in the UK are highly concentrated in particular areas, but there are significant rates of transmission in many parts of the UK with the darker colours.

“What we have seen is a progression, after the remarkable efforts which got the rates right down across the country, firstly we saw very small outbreaks which might be associated with the workplace or another environment.

“Then we have seen more localised outbreaks which have gotten larger over time, particularly in the cities.

“Now what we are seeing is a rate of increase across the great majority of the country - it is going at different rates, but it is now increasing and what we have found is that as we go through in time, anywhere that was falling is now moving over to beginning to rise and then the rate of rise continues to rise in an upward direction.

“So this is not someone else’s problem, this is all of our problem.”