Covid cases in Halton have plateaued over the past week after months of falling infections.
In the week up to March 16, there were 74 new cases of Covid-19 reported in Halton, exactly the same figure recorded in the previous week.
This reflects a pattern seen in most of the Liverpool City Region and is likely due to the increase in testing that accompanied children’s return to the classroom on March 8.
The number of tests carried out has increased significantly, while the proportion of those tests coming back positive has shown little change, meaning this is unlikely to signal a genuine increase in the spread of the virus.
Halton’s infection rate is also still much lower than seen at the peak of the pandemic in January, with just 57 new cases being recorded for every 100,000 residents and only three deaths from Covid-19 reported during the week.
Vaccination rates have also continued to rise, with almost half of Halton’s adult population having received at least one dose of the vaccine already.
This should mean that even if cases do start to rise again as lockdown restrictions are lifted, people are much less likely to require hospital treatment for the virus.
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However, the fall in the number of Covid patients at Warrington and Halton Hospitals has slowed this week.
In fact, the number of Covid patients at the two hospitals actually rose very slightly in the week up to March 19.
Even so, the 63 patients currently on the wards with Covid-19 is still much fewer than the 243 seen during the peak in January and some fluctuation in numbers is to be expected.
