THERE were 131 new cases of coronavirus cases in St Helens in the latest daily figures update.

Public Health England figures show that there have been 131 cases recorded in the 24 hours up to 9am on Thursday, October 15.

This indicates a similar rise to previous days with 101 on Wednesday and 140 cases in Tuesday’s figures. Meanwhile, there were 327 cases across the three days for last Saturday, Sunday and Monday’s numbers.

The health body includes Pillar Two tests – those carried out in the wider community – alongside Pillar One tests, which are analysed in NHS or PHE laboratories and which made up the first stage of the Government's mass testing programme in the spring.

The latest released rolling seven-day rate of infection in St Helens was 428.6 per 100,000, as figures showed there were 774 cases of COVID-19 confirmed in St Helens between October 6 and October 12.

This does not take into account the more recent days' numbers.

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This week, St Helens was placed under Tier Three ‘very high alert’ level restrictions.

These include for people not to socialise with anybody they do not live with, or have formed a support bubble with, in any indoor setting or in any private garden or at most outdoor hospitality venues and ticketed events; not to socialise in a group of more than six in an outdoor public space and pubs and bars can only remain open where they operate as if they were a restaurant.

In total, 3,845 people have been confirmed as testing positive for COVID-19 in St Helens, since the start of the outbreak in mid-March.

This means the overall rate of infection in St Helens now stands at 2,129 cases per 100,000 people, higher than the equivalent England average of 1,017.

Across the UK, the number of recorded cases increased by 18,978 over the 24-hour period, to 673,622.

St Helens's cases were among the 140,311 recorded across the North West, a figure which rose by 4,251 over the period.

Cumulative case counts include patients who are currently unwell, asymptomatic, have recovered and those that have died.