Preston’s coronavirus infection rate has now begun to fall

Snowy train tracks in Preston Pic: Tony Worrall

Preston’s coronavirus infection rate has begun to fall week-on-week for the first time since the start of the third national lockdown.

The latest daily confirmed cases showed the city recorded 72 new Covid-19 cases for Monday (25 January).

South Ribble recorded 34 new cases for the same day.

Wyre was up by 31, Fylde the same figure, Ribble Valley 27 and Chorley by 36 cases.

The city’s infection rate is now 481.4 cases per 100,000 people for the seven days to January 21, down from 511.4 cases per 100,000 people for the seven days to January 14.

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Data, based on Public Health England dashboard, for the most recent four days (January 22-25) has been excluded as it is incomplete and does not reflect the true number of cases.

South Ribble’s infection rate is continuing to fall as well, down to 419.7 from 525.3 for the same date ranges as Preston.

Fylde is seeing a slight rise, up to 331.8 from 318.1.

Wyre’s rate is falling, down to 299.8 from 413.9.

Ribble Valley is down to 371.2, from 532.1 and Chorley is at 348.5 from 376.4.

NHS remains under ‘huge pressure’ as Prime Minister mulls when to relax restrictions

Health secretary Matt Hancock has warned the NHS was still under “huge” pressure.

Latest data showed the lowest daily figure since December 31 of hospital admissions with Covid-19 and every region in England had recorded a week-on-week decrease in daily admissions.

However Mr Hancock said there still 37,000 people in hospital with Covid-19 and this was “almost twice as many as at the first peak back in April”.

He was joined at a government press conference by Dr Jenny Harries, deputy chief medical officer for England, who said figures needed to be kept “in proportion” and warned: “We are not out of this by a very long way.”

Meanwhile Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he and ministers would only start to look at easing restrictions when they meet in mid-February.

He said he wanted England’s schools to reopen ‘as fast as possible’.

The Prime Minister faces pressure from Tories to set out a timetable for pupils to return to class – currently only vulnerable children and those whose parents are key workers are attending school, with home learning for all others.

Mr Johnson could not guarantee that pupils would return before Easter, telling reporters: “We want to see schools back as fast as possible, we want to do that in a way that is consistent with fighting the epidemic and keeping the infection rate down.”

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said the Government would examine the data “and that will inform what we may or may not be able to ease from (February) 15 onwards”.