Here’s where the Chichester district ranks for confirmed Covid-19 Omicron cases

A list of confirmed rankings has revealed where the Chichester District ranks in terms of positive cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 as of December 15

There has been 15 confirmed cases of the Omicron variant in the district with an extra 40 potentialy coming from SGTF cases.

SGTF cases are PCR tests sent for genome sequencing to determine which variant they are - a process which can take many days.

A quicker way to spot potential Omicron cases is to look for a marker called the S-gene, which is missing in variants such as Omicron and Alpha but present in Delta cases.

Once identified, swabs showing so-called ‘S-gene dropout’ can then be sent for definitive testing for Omicron.

This means that the total number of cases in the district is 55.

Chichester ranks 236th in England out of 309 in terms of positive Omicron cases.

The highest number of cases is in the Southwark District in London with 1247 confirmed cases.

The lowest number of cases is in West Devon with only seven cases being confirmed.