Coronavirus cases drop by a third in a week in Brighton and Hove

The number of new coronavirus cases has fallen by almost a third in a week in Brighton and Hove, according to the latest figures from Public Health England.

But the number of positive tests – and the rate per 100,000 people – remained much higher than the level before Christmas.

In the seven days to Thursday 14 January there were 1,515 new covid-19 cases confirmed – a rate of 520.8.

The level of new infections remained above the England average of 504 cases per 100,000 people.

But the figures were sharply down on the previous seven-day period – to Thursday 7 January – when there 2,171 new cases.

This equated to a rate of 746.3 cases per 100,000 people.

Nationally there were 37,535 new cases in the past 24 hours, or a daily average of 44,997 for the past week.

And 599 more deaths were reported of people who had tested positive for the virus in the previous 28 days.

This made the daily average 1,129 over the past week and the number since the start of the pandemic totalled 89,860.

The Royal Sussex County Hospital, in Brighton, is currently treating 188 patients who have the coronavirus. Of those, 36 are in high-dependency or intensive care beds.