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Tracking Preston and South Ribble’s coronavirus infection rate fall as the Prime Minister prepares to outline roadmap out of lockdown

Posted on - 21st February, 2021 - 6:50pm | Author - | Posted in - Fylde News, Health, Politics, Preston News, Ribble Valley News, South Ribble News, Wyre News
Preston's mass vaccination centre within the St John's Shopping Centre Pic: Mick Gardner
Preston’s mass vaccination centre within the St John’s Shopping Centre Pic: Mick Gardner

Preston and Lancashire’s weekend coronavirus cases have been confirmed as the city continues to see its infection rate slide.

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The city has remained in and around the top 20 infection rates in England although you can see a rapid slide in the rate began after the first week of February in the chart below where we’ve been tracking Preston and South Ribble’s infection rate since late October.

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New cases recorded for Saturday (20 February) showed Preston had 40 new Covid-19 cases.

South Ribble recorded 18 new cases for the same day.

Wyre was up by 10, Fylde recorded 13, Chorley 28 and Ribble Valley 15.

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See the latest coronavirus cases and information near you

During Sunday (21 February) Preston recorded 35 new cases.

South Ribble saw 29 new Covid cases on the same day.

Wyre was up by just eight, Ribble Valley by 10, Chorley by 11 and Fylde by 19.

Read more: First vaccinations delivered at Preston’s mass vaccination centre

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How infection rates have been changing

As the Prime Minister prepares to outline a route out of lockdown, you can see the impact of the third national lockdown clearly on Preston’s infection rate.

It’s now halved since a peak in mid-January and the latest figure showed it is still above 200 but with two significant drops in early February and again in mid-February.

South Ribble’s rate is now back to where it was in early December after the second national lockdown. You can see the chart below to tap here to view it.

What will the PM announce and when?

Boris Johnson has stated he will announce his roadmap out of lockdown on Monday (22 February).

He is expected to address MPs on his plans around 3.30pm on Monday before making a televised address to the nation during Monday evening – with the Mirror reporting this will be around 7pm.

The government has stated the reopening of schoools is their number one priority, with March 8 set to be the reopening date.

However there are concerns about the spread of transmission if all pupils return at once so Boris Johnson may opt for a staggered return for different age groups.

The government are also understood to be looking at some relaxing of outdoor meetups for a small increase in the number of people allowed to meet-up outside. At present the restrictions say you can only meet one other person from another household for outdoor exercise such as a walk.

Ahead of the Prime Minister’s announcement on the roadmap out of lockdown the government announced it would be aiming to offer all adults in the UK a coronavirus vaccine by the end of July.

See the latest Covid vaccine stats and find vaccination centres near you

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No further priority groups have been confirmed for who receives the jab next, with teachers, police officers and other frontline groups urging the government to prioritise these groups.

Health secretary Matt Hancock appeared on Sky News to address any potential roadmap.

Read more: Recycling Lives in Preston needs volunteers to help as pandemic impact hits

Mr Hancock said: “The vaccination programme, whilst clearly going very well, will take time to be able to reach all people who have significant vulnerability, especially because we need to get the second jab to everybody.

“We’ve got time that needs to be taken to get this right. The Prime Minister will set out the road map tomorrow and he will set out the full details – taking into account that we need to take a cautious but irreversible approach, that’s the goal.”

He went on: “Whilst we want to set out a road map which gives people guidance in terms of how we think we will be able to do this, we also absolutely will be vigilant to the data on the way.

“We have seen throughout this pandemic that there have been moments when things haven’t got as we expected – for instance, when the new variant was first discovered in Kent.”

Read more: See the latest Preston news and headlines

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