CHESHIRE’S rate of coronavirus infection has taken another leap in the wrong direction over the past week.

New figures from Public Health England published this evening, October 15, show the county’s seven-day infection for the seven days up to October 11.

Cheshire West, including Northwich and Winsford, now has an infection rate of 190.9 per 100,000 people following 655 confirmed Covid-19 cases in that week.

In Cheshire East, including Knutsford and Middlewich, the infection rate stands at 167.9 per 100,000 people following 645 confirmed coronavirus cases in that week.

Both boroughs have seen another increase in their weekly infection rates since the week up to October 4, having seen a total of 1,300 cases in that time.

Then, Cheshire West’s infection rate stood at 143.7 per 100,000 people, while Cheshire East’s was 141.6 per 100,000 people.

The two boroughs are now in their second day of ‘tier two’ lockdown restrictions – meaning households are banned from mixing indoors, although the rule of six still applies outdoors.

Elsewhere, Warrington has seen another jump over the course of a week from 233.6 to 336.5 per 100,000 people, while Halton’s has risen from 343.1 to 386.4 per 100,000.

Nottingham has the highest weekly infection rate in England at 922.2 per 100,000 people following 3,070 cases in the space of a week.

Manchester is one of a tiny number of boroughs that have actually seen their rate of infection fall in seven days, from 558 to 473 per 100,000 people.

Meanwhile, the latest daily coronavirus figures for the 24 hours up to 9am today have also been published by Public Health England.

Cheshire West saw 113 new cases in that time, up from 93 in the 24 hours up to 9am on Wednesday.

In Cheshire East, there have been 108 new cases in the 24 hours up to 9am today, which was less than the 126 confirmed cases in the previous day.

It means that Cheshire West has now had a total of 4,029 confirmed cases of coronavirus since the pandemic began, while Cheshire East has had 4,304.