Coronavirus cases are falling in Wirral, but the borough still has a long battle ahead to defeat the virus.
In the week up to January 18, 2,152 cases were registered in Wirral at a rate of 664 per 100,000.
That is a marked decline on the rate of 901 per 100,000 seen a week earlier, with 2,918 cases recorded.
But to put into perspective how far Wirral has to go to get the pandemic back under control, on December 3, the day after the second lockdown ended, the borough’s infection rate was just 52 per 100,000 with 169 infections recorded.
Yet there is a more promising picture emerging and this was reflected in figures broken down to council ward level.
The numbers, which cover the week up to January 15, show that of Wirral’s 22 council wards, 20 recorded lower infection numbers than in the previous week.
Just New Brighton and the ward of Greasby, Frankby and Irby saw a rise.
Find out how many Covid-19 cases there are in your area by adding your postcode below
Upton had 170 cases at a rate of 1,007 per 100,000 residents.
That makes it the ward with the highest case numbers and the highest infection rate in the borough.
Other areas also recorded big numbers in the period.
Claughton had 144 cases, while Wallasey had 139. Bidston and St James also recorded 139 infections and New Brighton had 135 cases.
The overall fall in Wirral’s Covid figures is reflected in positivity numbers for this period.
That is the percentage of tests which come back as positive.
In the seven day period, 18.5% of tests came back as positive, down on 20.3% the week before.
That is a welcome decline, but still far higher than the beginning of December, when Wirral’s positivity rate was 2.3%.
Elsewhere in the Liverpool City Region, a more promising picture was also tentatively emerging.
Knowsley had the region’s highest infection rate at 1,014 per 100,000 in the week up to January 18, but that is down from 1,330 the week before.
Halton also saw a reduction, from 1,098 to 758, while Liverpool’s rate was 715, a fall on the figure of 976 recorded last week.
In Sefton, the rate now stands at 672, down from 1,042, and in St Helens the rate is now 744, down from 835 in the previous seven day period.
