Wirral's COVID hospital numbers have halved in the space of a week, as the borough continues to get on top of the virus.

The very latest figure, which covers February 16, shows that 65 virus patients were in Wirral's hospitals.

That is a major fall on the number of 135 recorded the week before.

The picture has been strong for several weeks in Wirral, following the huge surge over Christmas and January when COVID hospital admissions rocketed from 62 on December 22 to 279 on January 22.

The current figure is the lowest recorded since Christmas Day.

However, the damage the virus is doing was apparent, as 14 patients remained on ventilators, down just three on last week's number.

This figure has remained fairly stable after rising throughout January, showing more progress needs to be made if the harm caused by the virus is to be seriously reduced.

Looking forward there are positive signs, with case numbers continuing to fall in Wirral.

In the week up to February 15, there were 381 virus cases in the borough at a rate of 118 per 100,000, a significant decline on the rate of 190 per 100,000 with 617 cases recorded the week before.

Numbers are heading in the right direction, but after the last lockdown ended in early December case numbers fell below 200 at a rate of just over 50 per 100,000, far lower than the current level.

Elsewhere in our region, St Helens has the highest infection rate at 258 per 100,000, down from 348 last week.

In Knowsley, the infection rate decreased from 335 to 224 this week, while Liverpool's rate is now 181, down from 263.

Halton's rate declined from 265 to 168, while in Sefton the rate fell from 276 to 159.