The suggestion that 18 LAs still to reach peak of cases seems just odd.

E.g. take Carlisle which is on the list. North Cumbria NHS Trust has not reported a death 16 May and no reported new cases in Carlisle for the last 5 days. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/05/28/18-councils-yet-see-coronavirus-deaths-peak-data-shows-list/

Other areas on the list are reporting tiny numbers of new cases, e.g. Rother - not a single case reported since 22 May.

These are lower tier LAs which tend to have tiny numbers of deaths on any day, so the best way to check is to look at new cases from Pillar 1 tests.

To control for variation in small numbers and also for weekend testing effects, safest to use the 7-day average.

Let's compare the 7-day average for specimens taken on 23rd May (for dates after that, more cases could still be reported) with the peak value through the whole period.

I can only find 8 lower tier LAs where the value on 23rd May was > 50% of the peak value. Here they are with date when of the peak value, 7-day ave for 23 May & percentage of the peak on that day.

We can't be sure about the future, but no indication that cases are increasing in any of these areas.

Gt Yarmouth, Folkestone & Charnwood all saw a spike on 1 day (19 May) and numbers down since then.

North Somerset is the site of the well-publicised Weston-S-M hospital outbreak: lots of new cases on 18-20 May but numbers down since.

No sign of anything significant happening in Tameside, Huntingdonshire or Shropshire whilst Blaby seems to be running at 0, 1 or 2 cases most days.

I think the only area also on the Telegraph list is North Somerset. All the others on the Telegraph list are now reporting way less than half their peak value, many of them at just 0 or 1 case each day.

Perhaps I am missing something so feel free to pitch in.