The number of people in Wirral's hospitals with COVID has fallen for the first time in weeks after a worrying increase.

The very latest figures we have, which cover up to March 29, show there were 66 coronavirus patients in the borough's hospitals. That is down on last week, when there were 70 COVID patients.

It is the first fall since March 1, when the figure was way down at 15. Since then, major week-on-week increases have seen the pressure on Wirral's hospitals caused by a COVID surge.

This rise in hospitalisations has followed the pattern of dramatically rising case numbers. In the week up to February 26, Wirral's infection rate was 258 per 100,000. But since then, it has shot up.

In the week up to March 27, the rate was 997 per 100,000. But there is good news here as well.

During parts of March, cases rose by 50% or even 60% week-on-week. But the latest numbers show the rate of increase is much slower at 6%.

Breaking the numbers down to a more local level, New Brighton had more cases than any other part of Wirral in the week up to March 25. The seaside town had 191 cases, with Hoylake and Meols (188) and Heswall (188) the next most infected areas.

Oxton had the smallest number of cases in the borough, with 118, while Prenton (122) and Birkenhead and Tranmere (122) had fewer cases than most parts of Wirral.