THERE were less than 100 new positive Covid cases across Cheshire East and West as the country looks forward to restrictions being lifted in the coming weeks.

New figures from Public Health England cover the 24-hour period up to 9am today, February 23.

In that time, there were 38 new cases in Cheshire East, the lowest daily figure since the end of November and 30 in Cheshire West, which hasn't been so low since November 21.

That takes Cheshire East’s total number of Covid-19 cases to 19,500 since the pandemic began, while Cheshire West has seen 20,384.

Meanwhile, the seven day rate of infection continues on its downward spiral, a trend which has been ongoing now for most of February.

Cheshire East's rate now stands at 110.4 per 100,000 people, with 424 cases reported in the seven days up until February 18.

This time last week the rate was 130.7 while the week before that it was 190.8 and it is more than four times lower than the peak of infection on January 4, when it was 497.7.

In Cheshire West, the rate is now 130 per 100,000 after 446 new cases were reported across the last seven days until February 18.

Although this is very marginally higher than what it was yesterday (128.8) the downward trend is still apparent as this time last week it was 147.8 and is not far off being five times less than at the peak on January 4 when it was 625.8.