Fewer than 150 covid-19 cases have been reported in Wirral this week, as the borough continues to have the lowest infection rate in the Liverpool City Region.
In the week up to March 8, Wirral had 148 cases at a rate of 46 per 100,000.
Not only is that down on the 224 cases registered at a rate of 69 per 100,000 in the previous week, it is Wirral’s lowest weekly figure since September 2 last year.
Breaking Wirral’s numbers down more finely, in figures which cover the week up to March 5, the most noticeable change is a collapse in New Brighton’s cases after a major rise the week before.
Figures for the week up to February 26 showed that the seaside town had 49 cases at a rate of 324 per 100,000, more than double the number recorded in the previous week.
But that appears to be a short-term trend, as New Brighton’s cases plummeted in the latest ward-by-ward figures.
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In the seven-day period to March 5, the seaside resort had just seven cases at the much lower rate of 54 per 100,000.
Elsewhere in Wirral, Leasowe and Moreton East recorded the most cases (16 at a rate of 107 per 100,000), followed by Birkenhead and Tranmere (13 cases at a rate of 78), Seacombe (10 cases at a rate of 65) and Rock Ferry (10 cases at a rate of 68).
The picture behind these numbers is hugely positive, as every one of Wirral’s 22 council wards recorded between five and 16 cases, very low numbers.
A striking comparison can be made to figures for the week up to January 8, at the peak of the third wave, when Wirral wards recorded between 85 and 198 cases.
Numbers for the week up to March 5 also revealed that the positivity rate, that is the percentage of tests which come back as positive, fell from 3.5% to 2.1% on a week-by-week comparison.
The figure of 2.1% is the lowest Wirral has recorded since August 21 last year, even falling below the 2.3% figure recorded as England exited its second national lockdown in early December.
As for Wirral’s hospitals, the very latest figures which cover March 9 show they were treating 21 virus patients, the lowest figure recorded for almost six months.
Across the rest of the Liverpool City Region, each borough had a higher infection rate than Wirral in the week up to March 8, but numbers were falling across the board.
St Helens had the highest rate at 88 per 100,000, but even that was down from 119 last week.
In Sefton, the rate is now 63, down from 80 last week, while Knowsley’s rate of 59 was a decline on the previous week’s figure of 93.
Liverpool also had an infection rate of 93 last week, but this went down to 52 on the latest figures, while Halton’s rate fell from 81 to 55.
Despite encouraging figures across the country, earlier this week England’s chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty urged caution and warned that this is far from the end of the pandemic.
Professor Whitty said there will be a further surge in the virus and it will find people who either have not been vaccinated or for whom the vaccine has not worked.
He added that some of them will end up in hospital and sadly some will die.
