Covid-19 infection rates are still rising rapidly across the Liverpool City Region raising fears the region could be placed in Tier 3 tomorrow.
With the government set to review England’s tier system on Wednesday (December 30), every borough in the region is experiencing significant increases in cases of Covid-19.
These are the very latest infection rates for the city region and each of its boroughs, with absolute case numbers in brackets:
City Region - 204.2 (3,184)
Halton - 205.6 (266)
Knowsley - 202.8 (306)
Liverpool - 206.0 (1,026)
St Helens - 197.1 (356)
Sefton - 188.9 (522)
Wirral - 218.5 (708)
Most boroughs now have an infection rate above 200 cases per 100,000 people, wiping out a month’s worth of progress in reducing virus transmission in the region.
Wirral in particular has seen a significant increase over the past week and now has more cases of Covid-19 than it did at the start of the second national lockdown on November 4.
Growth
Covid-19 cases in the city region are not only high, they are also rising quickly.
Below are the percentage increases in cases up to Christmas Eve, compared with the previous week.
City Region - 59% increase
Halton - 22.6% increase
Knowsley - 67.2% increase
Liverpool - 46.6% increase
St Helens - 57.5% increase
Sefton - 82.5% increase
Wirral - 81.1% increase
These figures suggest that cases of the virus are doubling in the city region roughly every 10 days.
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Given it takes 10-14 days for new restrictions to take effect, we could see rates at least double again by the time the impact of tomorrow’s announcement is felt.
Some of this increase could be due to an increased uptake of mass testing before Christmas as people got tested so they could feel safer visiting their relatives on Christmas Day.
However, the overall increase in the region is not significantly different from the previous weeks, suggesting this is not simply down to more testing.
The most likely explanation for the rapid rise in cases is the relaxed restrictions that came in when the city region was placed into Tier 2 at the start of December.
Since then, cases have more than doubled in most of the city region’s boroughs. In Wirral, cases have quadrupled.
With no sign of these increases slowing, tomorrow’s tier review could well see the Liverpool City Region placed into Tier 3.
