ST HELENS' care homes have seen less than a quarter of the number of coronavirus cases in the latest figures. compared to the previous week.

According to the data there have been 119 fewer more positive cases in the week leading up to Friday, February 19 than from the previous week.

There are no suspected cases at the moment, a council spokesman said on Monday.

In the week up to February 19, there have been 36 cases of a positive COVID-19 test among staff and residents in care homes.

This compares with 155 for the previous week up to February 12.

Meanwhile, there have been 10 more deaths in care homes related to COVID-19 during the week up to February 19.

This is out of a total of 26 deaths across St Helens care homes that week, with 16 not related to coronavirus.

The 10 deaths sadly take care homes' overall death count relatewd to COVID since April 1 last year into three figures.

The cumulative number of deaths in care homes in St Helens in relation to COVID-19 is now 108, with the sector having been particularly badly hit during the pandemic.

The total number of deaths of all causes since last April in care homes by February 19 is 430.

READ > How St Helens' coronavirus infection rate compares with rest of England

All care home residents in St Helens had received their first coronavirus vaccine dose by the end of January, with the second booster jabs scheduled for 10 to 11 weeks after the initial dose.

The data on care home cases and deaths has been gathered daily directly from each care home and is accurate at that time of collation.

It may differ from the figures from other official sources, such as Public Health England, ONS, etc, as there may be a delay in official sources of information.

The testing of residents and staff as part of whole care home testing was not until recently part of the official statistics on infections in St Helens.