London, Sep 26 (IANS): A list of 38 new areas in England, including the entire city of London, has been added to a coronavirus "watch list" due to recent spike in the number of confirmd cases, the media reported on Saturday.
The new figure has increased the total number of areas on the list to 92 places , including all 33 London boroughs, the Metro newspaper reported.
Four areas -- Leeds, Stockport, Wigan, Blackpool -- have been escalated to the "areas of intervention" on list.
Meanwhile, Darlington, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland and Stockton-on-Tees have been added to "areas of enhanced support", which means they could placed under a local lockdown.
Corby, Northampton, Peterborough and Stoke-on-Trent have been removed from the watch list.
Currently, there are around 17 million Britons living under some kind of restrictions due to the pandemic.
The development comes as scientists have warned the UK's 'R' rate, which measures how quickly Covid-19 is spreading, is up once again from last week, reports the Metro newspaper.
According to data released the Government Office for Science and the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) on Friday, showed the estimate for 'R' for the whole of the UK was between 1.2 and 1.5.
On Friday, the UK registered another single-day case recorded.
With 6,874 new cases, the overall tally has increased to 425,766, while the death toll stood at 42,025.