Preston’s coronavirus infection rate is continuing to rise in comparison to the rest of Lancashire.
New confirmed cases in the city for Wednesday (20 January) remained above 100 new cases, at 102.
South Ribble also recorded 102 new Covid-19 cases for the same day.
Wyre was at 56, Ribble Valley 36, Fylde 38 and Chorley 73.
Preston’s Covid-19 infection rate is now 497.3 cases per 100,000 people for the seven days to January 16, up from 460.4 for the seven days to January 9.
This saw Preston listed as the fourth-fastest rising infection rate in England.
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Data for the most recent four days (January 17-20) has been excluded as it is incomplete and does not reflect the true number of cases.
South Ribble’s infection rate is static at 475.7, level week-on-week, for the same two date ranges as Preston.
Fylde’s rate has dropped to 308.2, from 330.5.
Wyre is at 356.9, down from 448.7 and Ribble Valley is down to 499.3 from 591.2.
Chorley’s infection rate is now 358.7, down from 399.3.
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The UK saw a new record ‘deadliest day’ in the pandemic as 1,820 deaths within 28 days of a positive Covid death were recorded.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “There will be more to come because what we’re seeing is the result of the wave of the new variant that we saw just before Christmas on December 18, or thereabouts.”
Chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance said the NHS was under immense pressure.
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He said: “This is very, very bad at the moment, with enormous pressure, and in some cases it looks like a war zone in terms of the things that people are having to deal with.”
More than 4.5million people have now received a first dose of the Covid vaccines.
Elsewhere the Mirror is reporting the Prime Minister is drawing up proposals to keep lockdown in place until Good Friday (April 2).
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