THE wards of Rumworth, Harper Green and Crompton have seen the highest number of coronavirus cases in the borough, according to new figures.

The stats, released by Bolton Council leader David Greenhalgh, show the electoral wards have reported 154, 145, and 133 confirmed cases respectively in the four months from March 1 to July 5.

Cllr Greenhalgh said: "Tables and graphs measuring trends are produced and looked at every day.

"As you can imagine, there are scores of tables of data both national and local, but mainly in what is called 'output areas', which are different to wards.

"A councillor submitted a question for full council for the current ward data in terms of recorded cases since the outbreak, and as a lot of people have asked about it I decided to share it to constituents."

Great Lever, Farnworth, and Heaton and Lostock have also seen more than 100 cases in each area, with 132, 125, and 122 residents testing positive for covid-19.

Only two wards have seen fewer than 50 cases confirmed, with Bromley Cross reporting 45 infections, and Horwich North East reporting the lowest number of infections in the borough, at 44.

The data, which covers the four months between March 1 and July 5, has broken down 1,798 of the borough’s 1,885 cases.

Cllr Susan Baines, the council’s executive cabinet member for Health and Wellbeing, shared the figures with her fellow councillors at a meeting last week, and urged caution about how the data should be interpreted.

Speaking about the figures, she said: “Positive cases were listed by electoral ward and those included both Pillar 1 and Pillar 2 test results.

“We have to note, however, that the data in the table is based on an extract received on July 6, and the data within the last four days within this period should be considered partial.

“The data we are receiving now from Public Health England is extremely fragile and complex and is constantly changing thus, this ward data requires considerable professional analysis by the experts involved and we cannot therefore make any rash conclusions.”

There are currently four pillars of coronavirus testing in the UK, although only two will tell you if you currently have covid-19.

Pillar one includes all tests in Public Health England labs and NHS hospitals, which is used for all those with a “clinical need”, such as people admitted to hospital, and health and care workers.

Pillar two testing is swab testing for the wider population, such as the test sites and postal tests.

Pillar three will show if someone has antibodies after having coronavirus, whilst pillar four covers any surveying for research into areas such as how the virus is spread, how many people are infected, and how accurate home testing kits can be.