Covid-19 rates in Wigan still coming down

Wigan Council's weekly coronavirus tracker shows there were 697 new cases identified, a rate of 212.1 per 100,000 people, in the seven days between November 22 and 28.

This means Covid-19 case rates are continuing to fall, with the latest total for the week ending November 27 the lowest recorded in the borough since the start of October.

Weekly cases have also fallen from more than 2,000 in a week to around 700 in the space of a month.

However, Wigan still has the fifth-highest rate in Greater Manchester for the period between November 22 and 28 and the rate of 212.1 is above the average for both the North West and England.

Rates were also significantly lower in the neighbouring boroughs of Warrington, St Helens and West Lancashire.

More positively, 21 of the 25 council wards in the borough showed a decrease in the latest week of case figures.

Aspull, New Springs and Whelley had the highest rate of cases for the latest week and that was also an increase on the previous week.

Ashton had the second-highest rate and its case figure was exactly the same as in the previous week.

The other wards in the borough where case rates did not decrease were Orrell and Hindley.

There were 36 deaths mentioning Covid-19 in the latest week of statistics, running up to November 20.

This was a reduction from the 42 registered the previous week.

Like all 10 boroughs in Greater Manchester, Wigan is classed as a Very High Risk area.

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

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