Preston’s latest coronavirus infection rate has been confirmed and the first to include figures from March.

It comes as schools across the city, and Lancashire, re-opened to pupils for classroom teaching after two months of closure.

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New coronavirus cases confirmed for Monday (8 March) saw Preston record 27 new Covid cases.

South Ribble saw 16 new Covid cases for the same day.

Ribble Valley was up by seven cases, Wyre by 11, Chorley by just three and Fylde by six.

See the latest coronavirus cases and information near you

Preston’s infection rate is now 132.5 cases per 100,000 people for the seven days to March 4, down from 194.2 cases per 100,000 people for the seven days to February 25.

This keeps Preston within the top 20 infection rates in England, ranked 13th.

Data for the most recent four days (March 5-8) has been excluded as it is incomplete and does not reflect the true number of cases.

Read more: Tracking the drop in Preston and South Ribble’s infection rate during February

South Ribble’s infection rate is 96.6 cases per 100,000 people, down from 157.1 cases per 100,000 people – for the same two date periods as Preston.

Chorley’s rate is 57.5, down from 104.9 and Wyre is at 39.3, down from 76.7.

Ribble Valley’s rate is 72.3, down from 115 and Fylde is at 95.3, down from 110.2.

Read more: Preston residents aged 56 to 59 invited to book Covid vaccine appointment

Prime Minister gives update to nation as schools return to classroom teaching

Boris Johnson gave a Downing Street update as Monday (8 March) saw millions of pupils return to primary and secondary schools across England.

It is one of the first steps in the lockdown easing roadmap as outlined on February 22.

Mr Johnson paid tribute to teachers and parents.

He said: “We all know that the education of our children is so important that the greater risk now is keeping them out of school for a day longer.

“I want to thank all the teachers who have got their schools ready and who have been teaching throughout the period – whether that is remotely or in person. Your work has been astonishing.”

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Mr Johnson also thanked parents who have been teaching their children at home and said: “We all know that the burden has disproportionately fallen on women – often holding down jobs and providing childcare at the same time.”

See the latest Covid vaccine stats and information

With infection rates, and other key Covid data measures falling, the Prime Minister was asked about relaxing lockdown restrictions sooner than set out in the roadmap.

He said: “Of course I understand the urgency that people feel but we have to be driven by the data, we have to look at the rates of infection.

“Don’t forget they are still very high by the standards of last year – we still have thousands of people in hospital with Covid.

“We have seen, alas, in other European countries that the curve is going up again and we remember frankly what happened every time we’ve seen those upwards curves in our friends and neighbours that it is not too long after that that we see an increase in this country as well.

“We’ve just got to remain prudent and the whole point about this road map is it is intended to be cautious but irreversible and we think we can do that because of the success of the vaccine rollout

“I think people would really rather trade some urgency and some haste in favour of security and certainty about those dates that we have set out.”

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