Preston, South Ribble and Lancashire coronavirus infection rates continue decline as 1.7million more people told to shield from Covid

The new Covid vaccine centre marquee outside the Bus Station Pic: Tony Worrall

Preston’s infection rates and Covid rates across Lancashire have continued to fall.

The city still has one of the highest infection rates in England but is seeing large week-on-week declines.

Latest figures comes as the government issued new Covid shielding guidelines to some of the country’s most medically vulnerable people.

New confirmed Covid-19 cases for Tuesday (16 February) in Preston were 53.

South Ribble saw 34 cases recorded for the same day.

See the latest coronavirus cases and information near you

Wyre was up by 25, Ribble Valley at 24, Fylde with 15 and Chorley up by 24.

Infection rate for Preston is now 254.3 cases per 100,000 people for the seven days to February 12, down from 330.5 cases per 100,000 people for the seven days to February 5. Preston is now ranked 12th for England’s highest infection rates.

Data for the most recent four days (February 13-16) has been excluded as it is incomplete and does not reflect the true number of cases.

South Ribble’s infection rate is now 209.4, down from 306 for the same two date periods as Preston.

Wyre has dropped to 112.4, down from 194.5 and Fylde is at 154.7, down from 2005.

Ribble Valley’s infection rate is 162.6, down from 192.2 and Chorley is at 195.4, down from 214.9.

Government extends shielding scheme for ‘high risk’ individuals

An additional 1.7million people in England are to be told to shield by medical experts.

The government is increasing the number of people ordered to shield to protect themselves from serious side-effects from Covid-19.

A new tool has identified people at high risk of severe disease or death.

Around 2.2million people are currently on the shielding list in England.

More than 800,000 of these are aged 19 to 69 and will be prioritised for the vaccination programme, the Department of Health and Social Care confirmed.

See the latest numbers and information on the Covid vaccine programme

The current shielding list includes people with single risk factors such as those with various cancers, people on immunosuppression drugs or those with severe respiratory conditions.

But as the pandemic has progressed, medics have found that some people are at higher risk than others because they have multiple risk factors.

Using medical records, the new tool assesses which people are at higher risk based on multiple factors including age, ethnicity, body mass index (BMI), other health conditions and also postcode, which is indicative of levels of deprivation.

Deputy chief medical officer for England, Dr Jenny Harries, said: “All of these people who are identified for the first time are those who have not had an individual clinical condition that we’ve previously been able to identify through the clinically extremely vulnerable group, but they are people who have multiple personal risk factors and underlying health conditions which move them into a higher risk group.”

Shielding in England is due to continue until 31 March.