Preston and South Ribble’s coronavirus infection rates are continuing to fall.

New cases confirmed for Tuesday (26 January) were 64 new cases in the city.

South Ribble recorded 45 new cases.

Fylde was up by 22, Wyre at 34, Ribble Valley with 15 and Chorley recorded 28 new cases.

Preston’s Covid-19 infection rate is now 471.6 cases per 100,000 people for the seven days to January 22, down from 517 cases per 100,000 people for the seven days to January 15.

Data for the most recent four days (January 23-26) has been excluded as it is incomplete and does not reflect the true number of cases.

See the latest coronavirus cases near you

South Ribble’s infection rate is at 417.9, down from 506.4 for the same two date periods as Preston.

Fylde is the only area in Lancashire which is still seeing the infection rate rise for the week-on-week periods, now at 329.3, up from 324.3.

Wyre continues to fall, down to 289.9, from 380.9, and Ribble Valley is down to 353.1 from 502.6 in a big week-on-week fall.

Chorley’s infection rate is now 341.7, down from 360.4.

Read more: Preston Grasshoppers to become a coronavirus vaccination centre

A sobering day as the UK’s Covid death toll reaches 100,000

The Prime Minister called a press conference to deliver the news to the nation that more than 100,000 people had now died as a result of coronavirus.

Boris Johnson offered his “deepest condolences” to those whose relatives have died of Covid-19, and pledged to ensure their loved ones are remembered.

Mr Johnson said: “I think on this day I should just really repeat that I am deeply sorry for every life that has been lost and of course as I was Prime Minister I take full responsibility for everything that the Government has done.

“What I can tell you is that we truly did everything we could, and continue to do everything that we can, to minimise loss of life and to minimise suffering in what has been a very, very difficult stage…

“And a very, very difficult crisis for our country, and we will continue to do that, just as every government that is affected by this crisis around the world is continuing to do the same.”

You can watch the full press conference below

Referring to the 100,000 deaths, Mr Johnson said it was “hard to compute the sorrow contained in that grim statistic: the years of life lost, the family gatherings not attended and for so many relatives the missed chance to even say goodbye”.

Read more: Preston gym visited by police and council for sixth time over Covid rule breaches

England’s chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty braced the country for “a lot more deaths over the next few weeks before the effects of the vaccines begin to be felt”.

He said the number of people testing positive for coronavirus was “still at a very high number, but it has been coming down”.

Prof Whitty also cautioned against relaxing restrictions “too early” as he said Office for National Statistics data demonstrates a slower decrease.

The number of people in hospital with Covid-19 in the UK was still an “incredibly high number”, he stressed, and “substantially above the peak in April”.

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