Preston and South Ribble’s latest coronavirus infection rates have been confirmed as hugs with loved ones may well be on the cards in June.

The city saw nine new coronavirus cases recorded for Wednesday (28 April).

South Ribble recorded three cases for the same day.

Chorley saw four new cases, Fylde up by one, Ribble Valley by two and Wyre up by one.

Preston’s rate dropped to 30 cases per 100,000 people for the seven days to April 24, compared to 32.1 cases per 100,000 people for the seven days to April 17.

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Data for the most recent four days (April 25-28) has been excluded as it is incomplete and does not reflect the true number of cases.

South Ribble’s rate is now 19, down from 19.9 for the same two date periods as Preston.

Wyre fell to 9.8, down from 13.4 and Fylde is at 7.4, down from 13.6.

Chorley dropped to 33, down from 33.8 and Ribble Valley saw a small rise to 11.5, up from 8.2.

Read more: The 22 areas of Preston and South Ribble with fewer than three Covid cases in a seven day period

Hugs may be on the cards from June

A government scientific advisor has suggested loved ones may be able to share a hug from June.

Dr Mike Tildesley, from the University of Warwrick and a government advisor, said a decision on whether social distancing would be needed in the summer months would be a political one.

His comments came as a new study shows a single jab cuts virus transmission by up to half.

See the latest coronavirus vaccine stats and info

The study from Public Health England (PHE) shows that a single dose of either the Pfizer/BioNTech or Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines can slash virus transmission by up to half.

The breakthrough findings offer further hope that the pandemic can be brought under control as vaccinated people are far less likely to pass the virus onto others.

Speaking on Times Radio, Dr Tildesley was asked at what stage people will be able to be close to another person, such as a family member, if both have been vaccinated.

He said: “I think this is really difficult because of course, in a sense, this becomes more of a sort of a political decision rather than an epidemiological decision because we have been told that on June 21 all of these legal limits on contact will be removed, but it’s still unclear exactly what that means.

“Whether that means that on that date some social distancing will be in place or whether all of those will be removed and you’ll be able to go and hug your loved ones…

“I think the key thing is that if you’re both vaccinated, of course, it does reduce the risk of anyone becoming severely ill and my hope is that as we move towards that June date, we will be in a position that we can not just see our loved ones, but also we can hug our loved ones because it’s been a very long time since we’ve been able to do that.”

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