Preston's ever-increasing Covid rise halts - but only for a day

The drop also marked only the second day in ten when the city had not hit a new record in the number of positive tests over the previous week.

In the seven days to 21st September, 247 Covid cases were identified, slightly down from a high of 259 on the rolling week tally the day before.

That equated to a slight drop in Preston’s Covid case rate to 172.9 per 100,000 people, according to Press Association analysis of Public Health England data.

However, just a day later, the data was going back in the wrong direction - in the week to 22nd September, the case rate was back to a new high of 184.4, with a total of 264 cases over that period.

The latest figures are also over four times higher than they were at the beginning of the month.

Preston has been pushed just outside of the top ten worst-affected areas in England on the case rate measure – although that is largely due to significant increases in the areas which leapt above it. The city has regularly occupied third place in that league.

Meanwhile, the proportion of people testing positive in Preston remains stubbornly high at 7.5 percent in the week to 22nd September. That means that more than one in 14 people who took a test during that period were found to have coronavirus.

The figures emerged just hours after Lancashire’s public health boss warned that further restrictions may yet be needed in those parts of the county – like Preston – with the highest incidences of coronavirus.

Dr. Sakthi Karunanithi said he was “anxious” about the recent trends in the Lancashire data, with multiple districts regularly inside the England top 10 by case rate.

Nationally, the highest number of Covid cases in single day was recorded on Thursday – a total of 6,334.