Preston has the fastest growing coronavirus infection rate in England.

The city saw the largest week-on-week rise for figures on Monday (18 January).

South Ribble’s infection rate is the third fastest-growing in the country.

New cases for Monday showed the city had 96 new confirmed cases.

South Ribble recorded 61 new coronavirus cases for the same day.

Wyre was up by 54, Ribble Valley with 45, Chorley with 59 and Fylde with 31.

New figures from the Press Association show Preston’s Covid-19 infection rate is now 503 cases per 100,000 people for the seven days to January 14, up from 417.8 for the seven days to January 7.

See the latest coronavirus cases and information near you

Data, from the Public Health England Dashboard, for the most recent four days (January 15-18) has been excluded as it is incomplete and does not reflect the true number of cases.

South Ribble’s infection rate is now 521.7, up from 442.3 for the same two date periods as Preston.

Ribble’s Valley infection rate is continuing to fall, down to 525.6 from 607.7.

Fylde’s Covid-19 infection rate is now 316.9, up from 295.9 and in Wyre it is 415.7, up from 398.8.

Chorley’s rate has slowed slightly, down to 373.9, from 376.4 the previous seven-day period.

Read more: Lancashire Police say they attended more than 100 Covid breaches across the weekend

Government gives vaccine update as family doctors urged to have ‘call list’ for spare vaccines

Health secretary Matt Hancock led a government press conference to say four million people had now received a first dose.

Mr Hancock urged the country to continue to adhere to the lockdown restrictions.

He said: “Don’t blow it now, we’re on the route out. We’re protecting the most vulnerable, we’re getting the virus under control.

“Together, I know that we can do it.”

You can see the full press conference below

The government wants to vaccine 15-million high-priority people, such as those over-80, by mid-February with their first dose of the vaccine.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “I understand completely that people want to get back to normal as fast as we possibly can. It does depend on things going well.

“It depends on the vaccination programme going well, it depends on there being no new variants that throw our plans out and we have to mitigate against, and it depends on everybody, all of us, remembering that we’re not out of the woods yet.”

See where is delivering the coronavirus vaccine near you

He said only in mid-February could any talk of restrictions being lifted take place.

Read more: Prestonians may need to make round trip to Blackburn to be vaccinated

Concerns have been raised about vaccine doses being wasted.

Family doctors have been told by NHS officials in England to have a list of back-up patients and staff who can receive the jab at short notice to prevent any waste of vaccine stock.

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