Coronavirus: Wigan borough sees 10 deaths in latest weekly total

In its latest COVID-19 tracker a breakdown of the borough's cases has been revealed.

The number of new cases has increased compared to the previous week and is higher than the rates seen regionally and nationally. However there are signs the rate of increase has slowed, the council says.

Wigan borough has the second highest rate of new cases in Greater Manchester for the latest complete week (October to October 16).

The borough is being classed as red for new cases and is an area of concern on the national escalation framework, the council added.

The local escalation plan has been activated and, along with all authorities in Greater Manchester, is currently classed as a Very High Risk area with the region having moved into Tier Three restrictions this week.

There have been 10 COVID–19 deaths registered in the borough for the latest week (ending October 9), up from one death on the previous week.

There had been 70 deaths, of causes, registered in the week.

There have been 364 deaths of borough residents that mention COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic as of October 9. 

The council says 76 per cent of all COVID-19 deaths have taken place in hospital, with 21 per cent in care homes and two per cent at home.

Meanwhile, 93 per cent of all contacts of new cases escalated to local contact tracing teams have been successfully managed.

Cases have increased in almost every ward in the borough. In Leigh and surrounding areas, there were increases in all, apart from Leigh South.

The total number of confirmed cases in the week was 7276, a rate of 2,214 per 100,000 population. This is lower than the rate for

Greater Manchester as a whole (2,478) and similar to the rate for the North West (2,210).

Wigan has the third lowest rate of total cases in Greater Manchester.

The latest week has seen the highest number of reported cases (1,488), but the increase is not as large as seen in the previous weekly update.