The mystery of why students living in cities as far away as Leeds and Durham were showing up in Richmond's Covid-19 case numbers can be explained.

On Friday, Richmond Council called for an urgent review of the accuracy of its covid figures.

The council had found that 70 of its 421 recently confirmed cases were young people tested outside of London.

It appears that the issue was arising because the information students gave where they were being tested was being over-ridden by their details on NHS databases, which traced them back to Richmond.

Twickenham MP Munira Wilson is Liberal Democrat health spokeswoman. She said: "Yet again we're facing technical glitches with the Government's disastrous test and trace scheme.

"Students from across the country were encouraged to go back to university only to face lockdown in their student halls as cases spiked, but the test data is being registered for many as if they were still at home."

Public Health England is said to be working to rectify the glitch and discovering how widespread it is.

Government statement

A government spokesperson said: "Public Health England uses the most up-to-date information available in Summary Care Records, including details of their address held by their GP, and the postcode provided when someone gets registered and these measures help minimise any discrepancies in local data.

"Universities encourage students to register at their local GPs on arrival and are working to ensure students are well looked-after on campus."

Coronavirus in Richmond

Even if the students who tested positive away from Richmond were discounted from our figures - they only account for 16% of cases - the borough still has a very high current Covid-19 rate.

In the first eight days of this month, 311 residents tested positive.

October 1: 41 positive coronavirus results

October 3: 26

October 5: 47

October 7: 57