Preston and South Ribble’s weekend coronavirus cases, how the infection rates are looking and ‘third wave’ warning due to Christmas

Tulketh Mill and Ashton Pic: Sky Eye Aerial Photography — An aerial view across the city: Sky Eye Aerial Photography

Preston and South Ribble’s coronavirus cases have been confirmed for the weekend.

The city saw 75 new cases on Saturday (12 December), one of the highest daily totals in recent weeks.

South Ribble recorded 34 new Covid-19 cases on the same day.

Wyre was up by 20 cases, Fylde just six new cases and Ribble Valley up by 14.

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Sunday (13 December) new cases saw 54 recorded in Preston.

For the same day South Ribble had 34 new cases.

Ribble Valley recorded 23 new cases, Wyre had 19 and Fylde recorded 15 Covid-19 cases.

How Preston and South Ribble’s coronavirus rates have changed in recent weeks

A rainy Sunday in Preston Pic: Paul Melling

The graph belows show how the infection rate in Preston has changed, per 100,000 people.

You can see after a steady decline from early December the infection rate has started to creep up again. If you can’t see the chart, you view it here.

South Ribble saw a slight rise in late November, and after a drop, is now trending upwards again.

Both areas remain above the infection rate average for England.

‘Third wave’ warning from NHS Trusts

The Christmas rules relaxation could trigger a surge in coronavirus infections – particularly in at-risk groups, say NHS leaders.

Chief executive of the NHS Providers, which represents many of the NHS trusts, Chris Hopson, has written to the Prime Minister.

He told Sky News: “We’re not calling at this point for the regulations to change, but that’s something I think we’re going to need to look at over the next few days.”

He added: “Trust leaders are worried that if infection rates remain as high as they are at the moment, relaxing the restrictions will trigger a third wave.”

At present, all four nations will relax restrictions from December 23 to December 27 to allow up to three households to form a one-off Christmas bubble and meet indoors.

A review of the current tier restrictions in England is due on Wednesday (16 December).

Preston and Lancashire is currently in tier-3 restrictions, meaning household indoor mixing is banned and pubs, restaurants and other leisure businesses must close.