There are now less than 1,000 cases of coronavirus in Wirral after a marked decline in infections in recent weeks.

It is the first time since December 27 that Wirral has recorded such a low figure, but there remains much more to do to get the pandemic under control.

In the week up to January 29, there were 941 cases registered in Wirral at a rate of 290 per 100,000.

The figures are the most recently released and subject to change, but the trend of the virus in Wirral would indicate that cases have now dipped below 1,000.

The scale of the fall is fairly dramatic. The rate of 290 per 100,000 is a huge fall on the borough's peak rate of 982 per 100,000, recorded on January 8.

But even the rate of 290 is far above the figure of 52 per 100,000 registered on December 3, at the end of the second national lockdown.

The situation in the borough's hospitals is still a serious one with 265 COVID-19 patients in them on January 26, the most recent number available.

That is slightly down on 272 the week before, but it is an enormous number and more than double the 131 virus patients seen in Wirral's hospitals at the peak of first wave admissions last April.

Just last month, the number of those hospitalised with COVID-19 in Wirral was regularly in the 60s, proving the severe impact the third wave over Christmas and early January has had on healthcare locally.

Wirral's public health team will be hoping that the figures can continue to head in the right direction over the next few weeks to prevent another deadly spike in cases just before the vaccinating of the most vulnerable in the country is completed.