Covid infection rates have continued to rise across south east London with the full removal of restrictions less than a week away.

Boris Johnson stressed that the ‘pandemic is not over’ as he confirmed the July 19 lockdown easing in a press conference on Monday.

The use of domestic vaccine passports and face masks will be encouraged in crowded public places, as TfL confirmed today that they will remain compulsory on trains and buses.

This Is Local London:

Covid-related pupil absence in England has also hit new record high since all students fully returned to class in March this year, with more than 830,000 children out of school last week.

About one in nine (11.2%) state school pupils did not attend class for Covid-19 related reasons on July 8, up from 8.5% on July 1 and 5.1% on June 24, according to Department for Education (DfE) statistics.

Of the 315 local areas in England, 291 (92%) have seen a week-on-week rise in rates, 22 (7%) have seen a fall and two are unchanged.

The figures, for the seven days to July 9, are based on the number of people who have tested positive for Covid-19 in either a lab-reported or rapid lateral flow test, by specimen date.

The rate is expressed as the number of new cases per 100,000 people.

Data for the most recent four days (July 10-13) has been excluded as it is incomplete and does not reflect the true number of cases.

This Is Local London:

In Lewisham, 988 new coronavirus cases were reported, giving it an infection rate of 323, up from 238 in the last recorded week.

And Bromley has also seen a sharp increase in cases, with its Covid-19 rate rising from 137.8 to 259.1 with 861 new cases.

In Greenwich the infection rate currently stands at 250.1, up from 199.7, with a total of 720 new cases recorded.

Bexley currently has a Covid-19 rate of 245.7, up from 158.7 last week, after 610 cases were recorded.

Dartford has a rate of 237.1, significantly up from 139.4 the week prior, with 267 new cases confirmed in the area.

Mr Johnson warned that July 19 “should not be taken as an invitation by everybody simply to have a great jubilee and freedom from any kind of caution or restraint”.

He said he still hoped the road map was “irreversible” but “in order to have that, it has also got to be a cautious approach”.

Although the Government order to work from home where possible will lift from Monday, ministers encouraged firms to implement a gradual return to the workplace.

Nightclubs, which will be able to reopen on July 19 after being shut since the first lockdown in March 2020, and other venues with crowds should use vaccine passports for entry “as a matter of social responsibility”, Mr Johnson said.