There seemed to be a huge jump in new coronavirus cases in York yesterday.

The latest Public Health England figures released yesterday evening revealed a further 702 cases of covid in the city - bringing the total to 5,207.

The jump in cases, however, was mainly due to a change in the way Public Health England (PHE) counts its figures.

"From 16 November 2020, PHE has updated the way it records the location of people who test positive or negative for COVID-19," a statement on the PHE website explained. "It now prioritises addresses given at the point of testing.

"This better reflects the distribution of cases and testing. However, it may give rise to differences in previously reported numbers of cases and rates in some areas."

The reason for this is that the change has been 'backdated' to September 1. "Due to reallocation of cases in this way, the number of cases reported by local authority may be artificially high or low on 16 November 2020."

York Press:

New Covid cases in York, up to November 15. Graphic: PHE

That's exactly what seems to have happened in York. In fact, a closer examination of the data reveals that only one further person tested positive on November 15 - not 702 as the adjusted data seemed at first to suggest.

There were no Covid-related deaths recorded in York on November 15.

You can check out the latest figures for your area of York in Public Health England's interactive map here

The map gives the 'rolling rate' of new cases up to November 11.