THERE were 107 new cases of coronavirus in St Helens in the latest official daily figures in a slight drop on previous days' numbers.

Public Health England statistics show that there were 107 cases of COVID-19 recorded in the 24 hours up to 9am on Thursday, October 22.

This is lower than the 146 recorded the day before and the 144 in Tuesday's statistics.

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 published rolling seven-day rate of new infection for St Helens is 434.1 per 100,000 people, as there were 784 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the borough between October 14 and October 20.

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

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Last 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.

However, it has been announced that gyms and leisure centres are to be able to reopen again from Saturday.

In total, 4,723 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 since the start of the pandemic now stands at 2,615 cases per 100,000 people, higher than the equivalent England average of 1,221.

Across the UK, the number of recorded cases increased by 21,238 over the 24-hour period, to 810,467.

​St Helens' cases were among the 172,229 recorded across the North West, a figure which rose by 4,531 over the period.

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