THE coronavirus infection rate has seen a massive jump in St Helens, eclipsing the previous high seen during the peak of the first wave in April.

Infection rates across Merseyside have risen to alarming levels in recent weeks, and has led to the region being placed under tighter lockdown restrictions.

In St Helens, the rapid rise took public health chiefs by surprise, according to Sue Forster, director of public health for St Helens Borough Council.

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At various points in July and August, St Helens’ seven-day infection rate was the lowest in the North West.

However, it became apparent in the first week of September that things were not quite as promising as they had seemed.

“Around the 5th September was the first time for us in public health we realised that things might not be tracking so well,” Ms Forster told the People’s Board on Wednesday.

“And some of this is because there were some delays in reports coming through to us from the end of August, that came on our line lists around the 5th September.

“And over that weekend we went really hard to look at what was happening, and as a result, in the following days rates went up extremely fast.”

Ms Forster said the rate of rising had slightly decreased in its speed in recent days, but said "we’re by no stretch of the imagination out of the woods yet".

She said Covid-19 knows "no boundaries" and is likely to spread further into our local areas.

The latest data from public health published today showed a significant jump in the local infection rate.

It shows that, between September 16 and 22, the seven-day infection rate for St Helens stood at 136.1 per 100,000 people, from 245 cases.

This is up from 114.4 cases per 100,000 population the previous day, and is the highest Covid-19 infection rate for the borough on record.

It had previously peaked in the week of the April 25 with a rate of 133 per 100,000 population, with 240 diagnosis in that week.

However, widespread community testing was not available at that time meaning a direct comparison cannot be made, although the continued rise is still a big cause for concern.

Earlestown continues to see the highest number of cases in the borough, recording 28 between September 16 and 22.

Rainhill has seen a significant jump in cases, recording 27. That means it now has the highest seven-day infection rate in the whole of St Helens, standing at 247.7 per 100,000 population.

Thatto Heath, Eccleston and Newton all saw 23 cases during that period.

Ms Forster stressed that while the level of testing in St Helens has increased in recent weeks, so has the frequency of positive results.

She said that, at the end of August, the borough’s positivity was 1.1 per cent of all tests done. For the past couple of weeks, she said, St Helens has hovered around 7 per cent.

St Helens Star: Coronavirus testing has increased in St Helens in recent weeksCoronavirus testing has increased in St Helens in recent weeks

Ms Forster said the impact of Covid-19 in recent weeks has been “widespread” and gave an overview of where some of the outbreaks have occurred.

She said that, as of Wednesday, 22 primary schools and early year settings had reported either a single case of Covid-19 or more, or reported issues such as parents testing positive.

Three high schools had also reported single cases, with one – Rainford High School – experiencing a sustained transmission.

Ms Forster confirmed there have also been confirmed cases in colleges and adult education.

She said two pubs have seen “significant outbreaks”, while there’s been five cases in cafes or food outlets and 10 in other venues, such as shops or other businesses.

Ms Forster said there are also ongoing issues in eight care homes.

As a result of the alarming rise in infections across the Mersey boroughs, tighter restrictions are now in place.

Ms Forster said stressed the importance of households not mixing with one and other, saying the council and its partners need to push this message.

She warned that, if the infection rate continues to increase, this will lead to a rise in hospital admissions, which has already started to happen locally and nationally.

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Ms Forster said: “In the early days, the only people that were being picked up on tests were those that were very poorly and going into hospital, so we can’t really benchmark this against our experience in April and May.

“But what we do know, that if we don’t do something about this now, what we will start to see – and I think might have already started to happen and certainly is happening nationally, as the chief medical officer (Chris Whitty) said – is starting to see increases in hospital admissions.

“Following by, a month later, we will start to see deaths – so we are in a serious situation.”