Covid-19 rate in Wigan continues to fall

There were 746 new cases identified in the seven-day period between January 30 and February 5.

This gives the borough a case rate of 227 per 100,000 residents.

This is the fifth-highest rate in Greater Manchester and also below the latest figures for neighbouring boroughs St Helens and Warrington.

The North West's rate also remains higher, at 238 cases per 100,000 people.

However, West Lancashire and Chorley both have lower Covid-19 rates than Wigan for the latest data.

Wigan's rates are coming down and this mirrors reductions in the prevalence of the disease both regionally and nationally.

However, there was more of a mixed picture across the borough, with 11 of the 25 wards showing an increase in cases compared to the previous week.

Leigh East had the highest rate of cases for the latest week, which covers January 28 to February 3. with Aspull, New Springs and Whelley having the second-highest rate.

Standish With Langtree saw the largest increase from the previous week, with a 75 per cent rise in cases, followed by Leigh East where numbers went up by 70 per cent.

The Kent variant now accounts for the majority of the new cases seen in the borough, the council's tracker says.

There were 68 patients in the borough's hospitals with Covid-19 as of February 9.

And the number of death certificates mentioning Covid-19 has also increased in the latest data.

There were 36 registrations in the latest week up to January 29, a rise of 13 from the previous week.

In total 905 deaths have been registered in Wigan which mention Covid-19 in the course of the pandemic.

Wigan's Health Protection Team also recorded confirmed cases of Covid-19 in 14 primary schools, three high schools, a special school, three early years' settings and three nurseries in the week between January 27 and February 2.

However, local contact tracing teams have managed to deal with most of the people in the cases escalated to them, with a 93 per cent success rate as of February 9.

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