Latest coronavirus confirmed cases showed the latest numbers for Preston and South Ribble.

Preston recorded 62 new cases on Saturday (2 January).

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South Ribble saw the same number of new Covid-19 cases for the same day.

Wyre was at 54 cases, Ribble Valley up by 45 and Fylde recorded 27.

See the latest coronavirus cases and information near you

Read more: Call for Prestonians to support local firms amid tier-4 restrictions

Pressure grows for primary schools to shut for two weeks

The government is facing growing calls for primary schools in England to be closed until Monday 18 January.

Education secretary Gavin Williamson confirmed on Friday (1 January) how primary schools in London would be closed for an additional two weeks to try and halt rising infections in the capital.

Teaching and education unions are now urging the education secretary to abandon the plan for all primary school pupils to return to teaching on Monday (4 January).

The National Education Union has advised all primary school staff it is ‘unsafe’ to return to work on Monday.

Read more: NHS recruiting for vaccination-related roles in Preston and South Ribble

Earlier in the week the government had said secondary schools would not see all pupils return until Monday 18 January to give more time for mass testing to be put in place.

Primary schools, apart from in areas with the highest levels of Covid-19 infection rates, were unaffected by the staggered return dates.

The education secretary then decided to u-turn on the decision outlined on Wednesday and instead shut all London primary schools for the extra fortnight.

General secretary of the NEU, Dr Mary Bousted, told BBC Breakfast: “The danger is that by opening schools as levels of infection are rising so high and are already so high amongst pupils, then we’re not going to break that chain and our NHS will become overwhelmed so we said all schools should be closed for the first two weeks.

“We regret to have to say that, we don’t want to have to say the schools will close but our fear is if we don’t do something now, they’re going to have to be closed for a much longer period later on this month.”

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the UK set a new record high for Saturday with 57,725 cases.

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