THE borough saw 17 deaths related to coronavirus in the latest weekly statistics.

In its COVID-19 tracker, the council says there has been 17 deaths in the week up to October 16.

This is a rise from 10 in the previous week.

This takes the number of registered deaths in Wigan borough involving coronavirus to 381 since the start of the pandemic.

The council said: "As of October 16 there have been 381 deaths registered for Wigan residents that mention COVID-19, with 17 registrations in the latest week.

"There were 70 deaths from all causes registered in the latest week, the same as the previous week.

"76 per cent of all COVID-related deaths occurred in hospital, 21 per cent in care homes and two per cent at home."

In terms of cases, in the seven day period from October 17 to 23, Wigan borough had 2,086 new cases identified, which is a rate of 634.7 per 100,000 of the population. It is also the second highest rate of new cases in Greater Manchester and is higher than seen in the north west (447.3 per 100,000) and nationally (England’s rate is 221.6 per 100,000).

The council says the number of new cases has increased compared to this time last week and is higher than the rates seen regionally and nationally.

The borough has the second highest rate of new cases in Greater Manchester for the period.