UKC

Admittedly i'm basing this on the Grauniad's map, but Clackmannanshire has had a case rate per 100k about twice as high as anywhere else int he UK for about a week.. what gives?

Small cluster in a lowly populated area? We had it here after outbreaks at churches in remote areas.

I don’t have anything concrete to offer, but it’s not the first time Clackmannanshire has topped the table in Scotland. I do get the impression it fluctuates a lot, and I have wondered in the past why that might be.

I still haven’t got maps for Scotland sorted.

The absolute numbers are very low; looking at the cases data it might be that the population is low enough that individual super spreader events dominate, and we’re in the tail end of the latest such outbreak?  There’s a prison in the region; a prison was behind a similar such burst that was low in absolute numbers but standout in normalised ones in Rutland.

https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/cases?areaType=ltla&areaName=Cl...

A colleague who lives in Alva tells me their neighbours had a party, where everyone present went on to develop covid (I think he said 19 people, but that rather assumes that everyone owned up), and of course they took it home to their families.

There's also a significant outbreak in Sauchie, which may or may not be related. As usual, the Alloa Advertiser has its finger on the pulse.

https://www.alloaadvertiser.com/news/19212845.mobile-testing-units-set-sauc...

Clacks only has a population of just over 50,000 - so a couple of significant outbreaks like these have a large effect on the 'per 100,000' rate.

Interestingly, there is no lack of mixing between Clacks and Stirling, people move very freely between them and many people work in one and live in the other (as I do currently), yet Stirling's rate is low. I would guess, as others said, that low population numbers play a part, and some sort of very enclosed outbreak (like the jail). 

It's known as "the wee county" for good reason. Excluding the island councils it's the smallest by population size. Occam's Razor says "noise."

What’s the case rate?
 

Edit:  just checked, 172. Must be because of the Ming Factor. Seriously though, folk are sick and tired of it all, and the positive vaccine vibe means folk are doin what they want. In many ways I dont blame them - I’ve been a ride goody two shoes but it’s doin my head in now.  Let’s hope the case rate does not equate to hospitalisations (doubt it).

Prisons have been at the centre of many hotspots; Portland had a big outbreak a few weeks back, in the Verne prison. It's calmed down again.

Kilmarnock and Breich (W Lothian) have topped the charts through prisons

Corby has been a hotspot for ages. No prisons in Corby itself, but three in adjacent areas (Peterborough, Wellingborough and Garside). Not really sure what is going on there.