As Preston and Lancashire sit poised awaiting the decision on tiers the latest coronavirus figures show the city continues to have a falling infection rate.
AdvertisementNew cases recorded in Preston during Wednesday (25 November) were 61.
South Ribble saw 45 new Covid-19 cases for the same day.
In Wyre there were 21 new cases, 15 in Ribble Valley and 17 in Fylde.
Preston’s infection rate is now 267.6 cases per 100,000 people, for the seven days to November 21, down from 408.7 per 100,000 for the seven days to November 14.
For the same period South Ribble’s infection rate was 211.2, down from 256.3.
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Wyre and Ribble Valley both remain below the average for England, with Wyre at 152.6, down from 239.1 and Ribble Valley at 198.7 down from 315.3.
Fylde is at 225.3 down from 305.8.
Lancaster has now dropped below the 100 cases per 100,000 mark.
Hyndburn is the outlier in Lancashire, with cases surging and now up to an infection rate of 431.9 per 100,000 cases – in the top 10 in England.
The government says it will outline the tiers decision for every area of England during Thursday (26 November).
Preston, and Lancashire, was all in tier-3 restrictions before the second national lockdown.
Current restrictions are due to end on Wednesday 2 December and revert to a new regional tier restrictions with the three tiers.
During Wednesday we saw the leader of Preston City Council write an open letter to Lancashire MPs calling for Preston to be placed into tier-2 due to its falling infection rate.
Within a couple of hours there was a call by Lancashire County Council for the government to ‘split the county’ into two parts.
Hyndburn, Rossendale, Burnley, Pendle and Preston would be clustered into tier-3 restrictions, while County Hall believed Fylde, Wyre, Lancaster, Chorley, South Ribble, Ribble Valley and West Lancashire would go into tier-2.
Read more: Lancashire still hasn’t received tier-3 cash from before lockdown 2
There has been vocal lobbying by many local authorities, as well as the unitary authorities in Lancashire, especially Blackpool, to be put into tier-2.
The announcement about the tiers is due to be made at 11.30am on Thursday (26 November) by Health secretary Matt Hancock, followed by a televised press conference by the Prime Minister at 5pm.
Read more: See the latest Preston news and headlines