For the first time since December, Frodsham's coronavirus infection rate has dipped below 200 per 100,000 residents.

In the week leading up to Thursday 28 January, 18 new cases were recorded in the town, marking a decrease of 42 per cent on the previous week and resulting in a rate of 196 per 100,000.

Meanwhile, in the rural area encompassing Helsby and Kingsley, 24 new cases made for a rolling rate of 258 per 100,000 people. This is a reduction of 20 per cent on the week before.

In Cheshire West as a whole, the infection rate currently stands at 283 per 100,000, with 47 Covid-related deaths being recorded in the last seven days.

Data recently published by the Office for National Statistics also shows that, from March to December 2020, there have been 15 Covid-related deaths in Frodsham, and 18 in Helsby and Kingsley.

The ONS data is presented in an interactive UK map, and can be accessed here.

How do our local figures compare to national statistics?

The average rolling rate for the UK has now slipped below that of Cheshire West to 262 cases per 100,000 people.

The slowing rate of reduction in our borough was highlighted by Council Director of Public Health, Ian Ashworth, during last week's Covid-19 Outbreak Board meeting.

"We have seen a 20 per cent drop in the [infection] rates which is really good, but it is not as sharp a drop as we would like," said Mr Ashworth.

"We really want to get it down as low as possible. That's one of the challenges we saw with lockdown two as we could not get it below 100 per 100,000, and then it went right back up again."

We do not want this to happen again when lockdown ends, so it is important to continue our efforts to curb the spread of coronavirus in the borough.

As of yesterday, approximately 1,260,000 people had been vaccination in the North West.

Source: Public Health England and the ONS