CORONAVIRUS rates in the borough continue to decrease as hospital rates fell by almost 30 per cent in a week.

In the seven days from Monday, March 22 and Sunday, March 28 there had been 312 positive COVID-19 cases in Wigan borough.

This is a reduction of 26, or 7.7 per cent, on the previous week's data.

The weekly rate of infection in the borough was 98.3 per 100,000 as of March 23. This does not take into account more recent days' figures.

Meanwhile, there were 10 COVID-related hospitalisations at the Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Trust in the week up to March 21, down from the 14 recorded for the previous week, almost a 30 per cent decrease.

The Trust was caring for 15 coronavirus patients in hospital as of last Tuesday, as the number of beds occupied by Covid patients decreased by 61 per cent in the last four weeks, with 38 people being treated 28 days previously.

There were four coronavirus-related deaths recorded in Wigan borough for the seven days up to March 28.

This is the same as for the previous week.

As of Sunday there have been 930 deaths within 28 days of a positive COVID-19 test in the borough since the start of the pandemic last year.

Meanwhile, in the figures released last Thursday, 145,581 people in the borough had received a COVID-19 vaccine by March 21 – 55 per cent of those aged 16 and over.

Of those 112,569 were aged 50 or over – 87 per cent of the age group.

Therefore, 33,012 people aged between 16 and 49 had received a first dose of a vaccine.