Preston and South Ribble see daily Covid cases spike above 100 as Health secretary backs police forces approach to lockdown measures

Wearing a face mask in Preston city centre during a phone check Pic: Paul Melling

Preston and South Ribble have seen a large increase in daily coronavirus cases for Sunday (10 January).

Both the city and the borough have recorded their highest daily totals in recent weeks.

Preston recorded 144 new Covid-19 cases for Sunday.

South Ribble recorded 140 new cases for the same day.

See the latest coronavirus cases and information near you

Wyre also went above 100 new cases, with 111.

Ribble Valley recorded 67 new cases and Fylde was up by 52.

Infection rates in Preston and South Ribble have increased rapidly during the first week of January.

You can see how they have changed in the chart below – although the most recent cases are not included – latest infection rates data will be released during Monday (11 January). If you can’t see the chart, click here.

Health secretary urges public to ‘follow the rules’

Matt Hancock has backed police in being more stringent in enforcing the lockdown rules.

The Health secretary told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme: “I’m absolutely going to back the police because the challenge here is that every flex can be fatal.

“You might look at the rules and think ‘Well, it doesn’t matter too much if I just do this or do that’.

“But these rules are not there as boundaries to be pushed, they are the limit to what people should be doing.

“The police are right to take very seriously the rules we have brought in. We haven’t brought them in because we wanted to, we’ve brought them in because we had to.

“Every flexibility can be fatal.”

There have also been increasing calls for teachers to be prioritised to receive the Covid-19 vaccine, to help speed up the re-opening of schools.

A member of the government’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) member Professor Adam Finn said they would be discussing the role of teachers during committee meetings this week.

The professor of paediatrics at the University of Bristol said: “I can’t predict exactly what will be prioritised but I can say that we will be discussing this and coming up with a plan, and I can also say that when it comes to teachers I think we all appreciate the critical role that they all play and so that really will figure in the discussions.”