Covid-19 cases in Wigan going down but still among region's highest

While case numbers have come down in the latest week compared to the previous seven-day period, the borough has the third-highest rate in Greater Manchester.

There were 582 new cases identified between December 5 and December 11, giving a rate of 177.1 per 100,000 residents.

However, of the 10 local authorities in the city-region only Bury and Rochdale had higher rates.

Wigan's rate is also higher than the ones in neighbouring boroughs Warrington, St Helens and West Lancashire, although it is lower than the figure for Chorley.

The borough's rate is higher than the one for the North West but lower than the England average of 195.1 cases per 100,000 people.

Overall Wigan's rate has decreased in the latest week of figures while regional and national ones have climbed.

The majority of wards in the borough have seen declines in cases.

For the period between December 2 and December 8 there were declines in case numbers in 18 of the 25 wards, with one staying the same and six increasing.

Aspull, New Springs and Whelley had the highest rate of cases for the latest week, but has seen a decrease.

Ashton, which had the second-highest rate, also saw a decrease but had the highest rate of all wards for the previous week.

The latest weekly total of 582 cases for the week ending December 11 was the lowest seen in the borough since the end of September.

It was the seventh week in a row in which case numbers have fallen in Wigan.

There were 40 deaths mentioning Covid-19 registered in the latest week of available statistics, which run up to December 4.

This was a decrease of one from the previous week.

Between December 2 and 8 the council was notified of confirmed Covid-19 cases in 10 primary schools, a dozen secondary schools, two colleges and a special school.

Wigan, like the whole of Greater Manchester, is classed as a Very High Risk area for the novel coronavirus at the moment.

Local contact tracing teams have successfully managed 93 per cent of all the contacts in the new cases escalated to them.

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