What are the current Covid-19 rates in Sefton and the Liverpool City Region and will we go into Tier 2 or Tier 3?

The numbers of positive Covid-19 cases in Sefton are continuing to drop, with a fall of -192 last week – a reduction of -23.7% from the previous week. 

In the seven days to 17 November 2020 Sefton recorded a total of 619 new cases. 

The figures are published every Wednesday, and all eyes will be on the latest numbers this week for both Sefton and across the Liverpool City Region as we wait to discover which Tier system we will be placed in when the new restrictions are announced on Thursday. 

For the week up to November 17, the Liverpool City Region’s infection rates were:

• St Helens – 259 per 100,000 residents 467 cases, -53 (-10.2%)
• Halton – 236 per 100,000 residents 305 cases, -22 (-6.7%)
• Liverpool – 230 per 100,000 residents 1,147 cases, -279 (-19.6%)
• Sefton – 223 per 100,000 residents (619 cases, -192 (-23.7%)
• Knowsley – 220 per 100,000 residents (333 cases -154 (-31.6%)
• Wirral – 157 per 100,000 residents (510 cases -121 (-19.2%) 
• Overall – 217 per 100,000 residents 

Earlier this evening, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that the current national lockdown will end on December 2. 

Areas in the country will then be placed into new Tier 1, Tier 2 or Tier 3 restrictions, with hospitality particularly impacted the higher the restrictions go. 

Restaurants, bars and cafes in Tier 3 areas must all close, except for takeaway services. 

Those in Tier 2 will be able to serve alcohol only with substantial meals. 

Closing times of licensed premises in Tier 1 and Tier 2 areas will be extended from 10pm to 11pm, with last orders at 10pm. 

Shops, gyms, hairdressers and other businesses will be able to open next month whatever Tier system they are in. 

Covid-19 cases per 100,000 people in Sefton and other boroughs in the Liverpool City Region between August and November 2020

But hospitality businesses will be waiting to see which Tier system is placed on the Liverpool City Region with the announcement due on Thursday. 

When the tier system was first announced at the start of October, the city region had the highest Covid infection rates in the UK, with local boroughs dominating the nation’s top 10 list. 

The Army was subsequently brought into Liverpool to carry out a Covid mass testing programme as a result, with soldiers staying at Pontins holiday camp in Southport. 

Since then, infection rates have more than halved and none of our region’s boroughs appear in the list of the country’s 100 most affected areas.

The region as a whole has an infection rate of 217 new cases per 100,000 residents – just a third of the level seen in Hull, which has the country’s highest infection rate of 652 new cases per 100,000 residents.

Even the city region’s worst affected borough, St Helens, has an infection rate of 259 new cases per 100,000 residents, putting it roughly in line with the national average and 114th in the overall list of worst affected boroughs.

Everywhere else in the region has seen cases fall below the national average.

Boris Johnson hailed the hopeful arrival of three new Covid vaccines which he believes will help to return life to some form of normality by Easter 2021.

The Government has ordered 100million Oxford / Astrazeneca vaccine doses and 350 vaccine doses overall. 

But he warned of a challenging Winter ahead until then. 

He said: “The pandemic cavalry is now in sight and we know that next year we will succeed and make this idea of a Covid lockdown redundant. 

“No other peacetime Prime Minister has asked so much of the British people and I am deeply grateful.

“This will still be a hard winter. But we have turned a corner and the escape route is in sight.” 

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