Less than three months ago, Knowsley had the highest Covid infection rate in the country.
More than 300 people were testing positive for the virus every day and infection rates peaked at almost 1.5% of the borough’s population on January 8.
Since then, rates have plummeted 97% to just 41.8 new cases for every 100,000 residents, well below the national average and back to levels last seen at the beginning of September.
It has been a dramatic turnaround for the borough, especially in light of the persistent, long-term factors that led to such a high infection rate in the first place.
In a pattern seen across the country, Knowsley’s high levels of deprivation left the borough much more vulnerable to Covid-19.
At a meeting of Knowsley’s Health and Wellbeing Board last week, director of public health Sarah McNulty said: “There are some fundamental issues with the make-up of the environment that we live in, the jobs that we do, that makes us more vulnerable.”
Dr McNulty highlighted high rates of underlying health conditions, high numbers of people unable to work from home and low levels of car ownership as key factors that had allowed the virus to spread quickly in Knowsley.
She said: “We have some fundamental issues with the low wage economy in that there are some people who can’t afford to self-isolate.
“We know that we’ve got low car ownership and what that means is that when people go out to work they have to use public transport or car share. We’ve seen car sharing come through as a factor in some outbreaks.”
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But since the peak on January 8, Knowsley has seen a steady decline in cases of Covid-19, including some weeks when the infection rate fell by as much as 50%.
The national lockdown restrictions have played a major part in this, but senior councillors have also praised residents and local authority staff for helping drive down rates to below the national average.
Council leader Graham Morgan has consistently referred to the “extreme kindnesses which people have shown, the community spirit which has been so evident, and the passion and bravery of so many who have battled Covid-19, whether personally or in support of others”.
Councillors have also praised the work of local contact tracing services, run by the borough's public health team, that has picked up cases missed by the national service.
Other factors in Knowsley’s success against the virus have included the widespread take-up of asymptomatic testing in the borough.
Since the mass testing drive started on December 8, more than 100,000 lateral flow tests have been carried out in the borough, identifying some 2,200 people who had Covid-19 but would not otherwise have known.
Without the testing regime, many of these people would not have self-isolated and could have placed others at risk of catching Covid-19.
More recently, the success of the vaccination programme has also contributed to falling Covid rates and the significant reduction in hospitalisations and deaths in Knowsley.
By the end of last week, more than 65,000 people in Knowsley had had at least one dose of the vaccine.
This figure included around 25,000 pensioners, equivalent to 95% of the borough’s over-65s.
However, rates of Covid-19 no longer appear to be falling in Knowsley and are instead plateauing around the 45 cases per 100,000 people mark.
This is likely due to more testing than any actual increase in the spread of the virus, and the reopening of schools on March 8 does not appear to have caused a rise in infections.
Local health chiefs will hope this week’s further reopening is also a success, and rates do not begin to rise again.
