The South Hams has seen 15 new COVID-19 cases confirmed in the seven days from October 2-8, official figures show.

A further 13 cases were added to the data this week, but are from tests before those dates, after problems with the Public Health England database saw thousands of cases not added when they should have been.

Across Devon and Cornwall as a whole, more than 1,300 coronavirus cases were added, of which only 54 per cent related to tests between October 2 and 8.

Government statistics show that 1,369 new cases have been confirmed across the region in the past seven days in both pillar 1 data from tests carried out by the NHS and pillar 2 data from commercial partners, compared to 381 new cases confirmed last week.

However, the large rise is partly down to the Public Health England database issues that they had last weekend that meant thousands of cases were not added to figures when they should have happened been, and therefore a lot of backdated cases that should be allocated to last week’s figures were only added on Sunday and Monday.

The number of new cases confirmed in Cornwall has risen to 237, with 144 in Plymouth, 85 in Torbay, and 903 in the Devon County Council area – with two-thirds of those cases in Exeter, and more than 80 per cent of them linked to the University.

Of the 1,369 new cases, 237 were in Cornwall, with 92 in East Devon, 603 in Exeter, 32 in Mid Devon, 38 in North Devon, 144 in Plymouth, 28 in the South Hams, 69 in Teignbridge, 85 in Torbay, 18 in Torridge, and 23 in West Devon.

Every region has seen cases more than double although this is partly due to the data backlogging issues at the start of the week.

Of the 1,369 new cases confirmed, 745 of the cases have a specimen date of between October 2 and October 8 with the other 624 cases dating back into September, and for a very small number of cases, the start of the month.

Of the 745 of the cases had a specimen date of between October 2 and October 8, 134 of Cornwall cases occurred in that period, with 45 in East Devon, 310 in Exeter, 17 in Mid Devon, 23 in North Devon, 15 in the South Hams, 45 in Teignbridge, 76 in Plymouth, 45 in Torbay, 8 in Torridge, and 15 in West Devon.

By specimen date, the most recent case in Torbay, Plymouth and Cornwall in October 8, while is October 7 for the eight districts in Devon.

Of the cases with a specimen date of between September 29 to October 5, there are currently 96 clusters where three of more cases have been confirmed in a Middle Super Output Area, but only one is in the South Hams, in Dartmouth, a cluster of three cases.

The number of people in hospital in the South West has risen to 77, up from 48 as of last week, but there are currently only four people on a mechanical ventilator, and there have only been three deaths in hospital in the South West in the past 28 days, while NHS 111 data for both Devon and Cornwall has fallen significantly in the past seven days.

In total, Torridge has had 94 positive cases, West Devon 110, with 179 in the South Hams, 206 in North Devon, 281 in Mid Devon, 479 in Teignbridge, 397 in East Devon, 462 in Torbay, 1,063 in Exeter, 1,092 in Plymouth and 1,634 in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

But despite the rise in cases, Devon health officials are not expecting to the county to be placed into a local lockdown.

Cllr John Hart, leader of Devon County Council, said: “As the situation currently stands, most of the cases in Exeter are in the student population and not in the wider community and so – at the moment – Exeter is not in line for a broad lockdown across the city.”

Dr Virginia Pearson, director of public health, added: “Exeter has seen a recent sharp spike in cases, most of which are in the University student population. The outbreak is currently contained, and so Exeter is not in the territory for broad lockdown within the city at this time.”

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.

Cases received from laboratories by 12.30am are included in the counts published that day. While there may have been new cases of coronavirus confirmed or people having tested positive, those test results either yet to reach PHE for adding to the dataset or were not received in time for the latest daily figures to be published.