THE daily number of new Covid cases announced in Cheshire East and West has fallen today, January 28, following a spike on Wednesday.

A total of 389 Covid cases were reported across the area yesterday – a leap up from the figures of 231 on Tuesday and 198 on Monday.

But in today’s figure announced by Public Health England, there were 268 cases announced across the two boroughs, covering the 24-hour period up to 9am today.

Of that figure, 137 cases were in Cheshire West, which has now had a total of 18,276 Covid cases since the pandemic began.

In Cheshire East, there were 131 cases, taking the borough’s total to 17,473.

Meanwhile, the seven-day infection rate continues to fall across both boroughs, having soared to their highest level at the beginning of the year.

In Cheshire West, the rate is now 345.7 per 100,000 people, following 1,186 cases in the seven days up to January 23.

That is lower than the rate published yesterday of 358.8 per 100,000 people, 422.4 per 100,000 people one week earlier and 534 per 100,000 people a fortnight ago.

In Cheshire East, the rate is now 242.1 per 100,000 people, following 930 cases in the seven days up to January 23.

That is lower than 257.7 per 100,000 people in yesterday’s figures, 329 per 100,000 people one week earlier and 409.7 per 100,000 people a fortnight ago.

While the rates are coming down, a leading council officer says the numbers are not falling as quickly as hoped during the national lockdown, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Ian Ashworth, director of public health at Cheshire West, said: “We have seen a 20 per cent drop in the [infection] rates which is really good, but it is not as sharply a drop as we would like.

“We really want to get it down as low as possible. That’s one of the challenges we saw with lockdown two as we could not get it below 100 per 100,000, and then it went right back up again.”