More than 3,000 Covid cases have been recorded across south Essex in the last week.

The latest figures show infections continue to climb across the region, with Basildon recording 908 cases alone.

Southend saw 891 new cases in the latest weekly period to November 20, while there were 802 in Thurrock.

Both Castle Point and Rochford saw more than 400 new cases confirmed in that period, meaning all districts and boroughs have infection rates above 400 cases per 100,000 people.

The neighbourhoods which recorded the highest number of cases in the week ending November 20 were:

1. Tilbury 87

2. West Shoebury 79

3. Shoebury 75

4. Eastwood 72

5. Chadwell St Mary 71

6. Westborough 66

7. Hockley and Hawkwell West 64

8. St Lukes 61

9. Basildon Central and Pipps Hill 59

10. Victoria 56

= Whitmore Way and Fremnells 56

It comes as a worrying new variant of coronavirus has been found in Belgium.

The UK’s Health Secretary Sajid Javid has said there is “huge international concern” over the strain.

Belgium became the first European Union country to announce a case of the variant B.1.1.529, which has been identified in other places including South Africa, Botswana, Hong Kong and Israel.

Belgian Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke said: “We have one case of this variant that is confirmed. It’s someone who came from abroad.”

Marc Van Ranst, who works with the Rega Institute in Belgium, tweeted that a sample was confirmed as the variant in a traveller who returned from Egypt on November 11.

The patient first showed symptoms on November 22.

Earlier today, Mr Javid told the Commons that experience has shown “we must move quickly and at the earliest possible moment”, adding there were concerns the variant may be more transmissible, make vaccines less effective and may affect one of the UK’s Covid treatments, Ronapreve.

He told MPs it was “highly likely” the B.1.1.529 variant had already spread from Africa to other countries.

The Government added South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini, Zimbabwe and Namibia to the UK’s travel red list on Thursday evening.

Passengers arriving in the UK from these countries from 4am on Sunday will be required to book and pay for a Government-approved hotel quarantine for 10 days. Downing Street urged anyone who has arrived from these countries recently to get tested.

Mr Javid said discussions are ongoing over the prospect of adding further countries to the red list, saying: “We are keeping this under review and there’s very live discussions going on about whether we should and when we might add further countries, and we won’t hesitate to act if we need to do so.”