SOME parts of Devon have seen no new positive cases of coronavirus recorded in the last week.

The latest lab-confirmed case counts and rates published by the Government on Friday evening show that the South Hams and West Devon have seen no new cases recorded in the past eight days.

It has now been five days since a positive case in East Devon was recorded, while just two new cases of coronavirus have been recorded in Teignbridge and Torridge in the last week.

And the latest figures show that in terms of infection rates per 100,000 people, areas of Devon are still among the lowest in England and that Exeter is the city council area with the lowest infection rate.

Torridge has the third lowest infection rate, with South Hams 7th, East Devon 9th, North Devon 11th, West Devon 13th, Cornwall 14th, Teignbridge 21st, Mid Devon 22nd, Exeter 34th, Plymouth 37th, and Torbay 77th.

Torridge is both the area with the third lowest number of cases, with only Rutland – the small historic county in England, and the City of London, an administrative region covering the Square Mile and populated by just 9,000 people – have had fewer cases.

Cllr John Hart, the Leader of Devon County Council, said: ‘Fortunately, we had limited confirmed cases given the size of the population in Devon at the time of the lockdown on March 23.

‘This, and the fact that Devon residents have followed the Stay at Home and social distancing measures so well, has helped levels stay low.

‘I want to thank residents and businesses for following these measures, I have no doubt that it has helped save lives.

‘I understand that the lockdown has been difficult but I would ask people to continue to follow these guidelines.

‘There are many vulnerable people in Devon, so please think twice before travelling, think about the impact on your neighbours, think about the risks and please continue to wash your hands regularly and abide by the social distancing guidelines.’

In the last seven days, just 71 new positive cases of coronavirus have been recorded in Devon and Cornwall. Of the 71, 24 were in Cornwall, 12 in Plymouth and Torbay, eight in North Devon, six in Mid Devon, three in Exeter, two in East Devon, Teignbridge Torridge, with no new cases in West Devon and the South Hams.

The COVID-19 cases are identified by taking specimens from people and sending these specimens to laboratories around the UK to be tested. If the test is positive, this is a referred to as a lab-confirmed case.

Confirmed positive cases are matched to ONS geographical area codes using the home postcode of the person tested.

The data is now shown by the date the specimen was taken from the person being tested and while it gives a useful analysis of the progression of cases over time, it does mean that the latest days’ figures may be incomplete.