Preston’s coronavirus infection rate remains amongst England’s highest as new vaccine supply to boost first jabs roll-out

Preston's skyline as viewed from the city's Docks Pic: Jim Beattie — Preston’s skyline as viewed from the city’s Docks Pic: Jim Beattie

Preston remains in England’s highest infection rate areas despite a continuing fall in the week-on-week infection rate.

The city recorded 49 new cases for Wednesday (10 March), one of its highest daily Covid cases for some weeks.

South Ribble saw 16 new cases on the same day.

Wyre was up by 12 cases, Fylde by 10 cases, Chorley recorded 11 and Ribble Valley just three.

The infection rate for Preston is now 142.5 cases per 100,000 people for the seven days to March 6, down from 171.9 cases per 100,000 people for the seven days to February 27.

See the latest coronavirus cases and information near you

Data for the most recent four days (March 7-10) has been excluded as it is incomplete and does not reflect the true number of cases.

This leaves Preston as ranked sixth in the highest infection rates by local authority areas in England.

South Ribble’s infection rate is 100.2, down from 129.1 – for the same two date periods as Preston.

Wyre is now at 37.5, down from 71.4 and Fylde is at 79.2, down from 115.1.

Ribble’s Valley infection rate has increased week-on-week, up to 88.7 from 78.8.

Chorley’s infection rate dropped to 53.3, down from 101.5.

Vaccine rollout about to speed up says Vaccines Minister

A ‘big uplift’ in supply of Covid vaccines in the coming weeks means the number of people set to receive their first jab is due to increase.

See the latest coronavirus vaccine stats and information

Vaccines Minister Nadhim Zahawi said: “In the second half of March you will see a big uplift in supply.

“Up until now supply has been finite. We’ve had good volumes but when your supply is finite you have to try and make sure that each region gets enough doses to do the cohort target. So when we were focused on (priority groups) one to four by the middle of February, we have to make sure that each region have that vaccine available to them.

“Now obviously as we see more – and I’m expecting tens of millions of doses to come through – that becomes a little bit easier which allows us, for example, to double the number of pharmacies that will come online for delivery (from 200 to 400).

“The whole country will see a rapid increase in the number of people getting their first dose and getting protected whilst obviously we do second dosing at the same time.”