Cases of Covid-19 on the rise in Halton area

HALTON was hit with a rise in the number coronavirus cases this week as public health chiefs urged residents to protect each other from the deadly virus.

By Monday, the total number of infections had risen by 12 to 717 from 705 last Monday.

For comparison, between July 10 and July 17, there were just three new infections.

There has been one death reported at Warrington And Halton Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust and one at St Helens and Knowsley (Whiston) during the last week.

Eileen O’Meara, Halton Borough Council’s director of public health, has now joined her counterparts across the region in urging residents to cover their faces in shops, takeaways and public transport as well as avoid crowds and keep apart from other people by two metres.

The plea across the

North West is reportedly in response to ‘local outbreaks’ and increasing numbers of cases.

Halton Council said additional mobile testing units have been deployed to pick up positive cases, with the aim of carrying out contact tracing to prevent further spread.

Mrs O’Meara said: “Unless they are exempt, it is so important people protect themselves and others by wearing a face covering, keeping a distance of two metres and regularly washing their hands.

“We have seen people incorrectly wearing face coverings, so they must cover your nose and mouth, you should only handle your mask with clean hands.

“We want to prevent local lockdowns and protect frontline services who will need to deal with illness as a result of Covid.

“We really need people to support us by doing everything they can to help keep our families, friends and communities safe.”

Halton had no recorded coronavirus deaths in the last three weeks of July, and the most recent death due to the disease in the borough was at the start of last month.

No borough fatality data was available for August.