No coronavirus deaths reported
HALTON has experienced its first week without any deaths due to coronavirus since March. In its latest bulletin, the Office For National Statistics revealed that there were zero fatalities due to the disease in the borough in the seven days to June 26.
This was the first time the borough had no coronavirus deaths since the seven days up to March 20 – just as lockdown was starting to hit.
The figures include all fatalities due to the disease registered up to July 4.
The total number of lives lost in Halton due to the disease remains at 126.
Of those, 76 have been in hospital – about two thirds, and 46 have been in care homes – just over a third.
Four were at home.
This week ushered in more accurate and complete data sets relating to the total number of cases recorded in the borough, with the inclusion of so-called Pillar 2 figures for the first time. Whereas the previous Pillar 1 figures only covered swab testing in Public Health England (PHE) labs, NHS hospitals and health and care workers, Pillar 2 includes the wider population.
So last Thursday morning, July 2, the number of recorded cases in the borough apparently jumped from 487 to 680.
Since then, there have been five more cases of coronavirus confirmed in Halton, bringing the total to 680 by Monday, July 7.
Halton’s coronavirus rate was the 37th highest in England, with a rate of 533.4 cases per 100,000 population.
The highest was Leicester with a rate of 1,094.3 per 100,000 residents, and the lowest was North East Lincolnshire with a rate of 127.6 per 100,000 population – about a quarter the rate in Halton.
Some normality returned to high streets also, with pubs, barbers and hairdressers all reopening.
Norton Priory museum and gardens also reopened to the public.