The number of new covid cases in Brighton and Hove has plummeted from more than 1,600 in a week to below 1,000.
The latest figures from Public Health England show that 965 new cases were recorded in the seven days to Monday 26 July.
This was a drop from 1,648 in the previous seven days, giving a rate of 332 cases for every 100,000 people in Brighton and Hove. The rate was 567 in the previous seven-day period.
Brighton and Hove still has an above average rate of new infections despite the plunge of more than 40 per cent.
Officials are concerned that the decrease is the result of fewer people being tested, in part because children are off school for the summer holidays.
But each week hundreds of thousands of people with the NHS Test and Trace app have been receiving a message on their phone telling them to self-isolate.
The so-called “pingdemic” appears to have prompted many people to remove the app from their phone.
But a high proportion have followed the rules and the level of self-isolation has led to empty shelves in supermarkets, with a shortage of delivery drivers.
Bin rounds have been delayed and rubbish and recycling has been piling up in places.
The drop in new infections has, though, been matched by a fall in the number of people with covid-19 in the Royal Sussex County Hospital, in Brighton.
Nineteen patients are being treated for the virus at the hospital while the number in high dependency or intensive care beds is five or fewer.
Deaths remain low and although the vaccination uptake in Brighton and Hove is below national averages, the numbers continue to rise.
