One ward in the Birkenhead area has the highest rate of COVID-19 infections in Wirral.

In the week up to January 29, Claughton had 66 cases at a rate of 457 per 100,000, with Birkenhead and Tranmere (71 cases at 425 per 100,000) and Upton (71 cases at 421 per 100,000) following closely behind.

Liscard was the only other Wirral ward to have a rate of over 400 per 100,000, registering the rate of 403.

These figures show that the virus is still highly prevalent in the borough, but there was encouraging news as each of Wirral's 22 wards saw cases fall in the latest weekly update.

For the first time since the second lockdown there was also a noticeable fall in the borough's positivity rate, which is the percentage of tests that come back as positive.

In previous weeks cases have fallen considerably but the positivity rate has not, leading some to suggest that people not coming forward for tests was a central cause of declining infection rates.

On January 8, Wirral's positivity rate peaked at 20.3%. As case numbers fell markedly, this measure only decreased to 18.5% in the following week and 16.4% in the week up to January 22.

But this week the rate was down to 10.7%, further evidence that the virus is less prevalent in Wirral than it was at the start of January.

It should be noted that we are far from out of the woods yet. One sign of this is that Wirral's COVID-19 hospital admissions remain far above the first wave week last April.

Figures for Wirral as a whole, which cover the week up to January 31, also show case numbers falling.

At the latest count, Wirral had 911 cases at a rate of 281 per 100,000, down on the rate of 465 last week, with 1,507 cases registered.

Knowsley continues to have the highest rate in the Liverpool City Region at 487, but that is down from 778 the week before.

In Halton, the infection rate has also fallen, from 583 to 405 in a week-by-week comparison, while Liverpool's rate is now 335, down from 519.

St Helens' rate is 459, a welcome decline from 632 a week ago, while Sefton's rate of 342 also represents a fall on the previous week's rate of 505.