Blackburn with Darwen has seen a massive drop in its coronavirus infection rate, falling from 705.4 infections per 100,000 people, to just 575.2.

Tuesday’s update of the rolling seven-day rate of new cases of Covid-19 show that despite still sitting fourth on the Government's list of areas with the highest rate of infection, Blackburn with Darwen's rate has continued to decrease.

This is encouraging news for the borough and the rest of the county as England prepares to exit a full lockdown in exactly two weeks. 

The new figures, released on Tuesday night, are for the seven days to November 13, and are based on tests carried out in laboratories (pillar one of the Government’s testing programme) and in the wider community (pillar two).

The rate is expressed as the number of new cases per 100,000 people.

Data for November 14-17 has been excluded as it is incomplete and does not reflect the true number of cases.

A majority of areas in England (232 out of 315) have seen a rise in case rates, however, the picture is promising in Lancashire as the rates in Pendle, Hyndburn, Rossendale and the Ribble Valley all continued to fall, as did the rates in Preston, Blackpool, Lancaster, Wyre, West Lancashire, Chorley and South Ribble.

Only Fylde and Burnley saw an increase.

The infection rate across Burnley jumped from 399.2 per 100,000 to 418.4 per 100,000 in the seven days to November 13.

The infection rates in the remaining five East Lancashire boroughs are as follows:

Pendle 434.3 (400), 504.8 (465)

Hyndburn 399.8 (324), 428.2 (347)

Rossendale 384.7 (275), 461.7 (330)

Ribble Valley 297.3 (181), 376.1 (229)

Burnley 418.4 (372), 399.2 (355)

Hull continues to have the highest rate in England, with 1,976 new cases recorded in the seven days to November 13 – the equivalent of 760.6 cases per 100,000 people.

Hartlepool has the second highest rate, up sharply from 407.8 to 596.8, with 559 new cases.

Swale is in third place, where the rate has risen from 284.5 to 589.7, with 885 new cases.

From left to right, the top 20 reads: name of local authority; rate of new cases in the seven days to November 13; number (in brackets) of new cases recorded in the seven days to November 13; rate of new cases in the seven days to November 6; number (in brackets) of new cases recorded in the seven days to November 6.

The list is based on Public Health England data published on November 17 on the Government’s coronavirus dashboard.

Hull 760.6 (1976), 731.8 (1901)

Hartlepool 596.8 (559), 407.8 (382)

Swale 589.7 (885), 284.5 (427)

Blackburn with Darwen 575.2 (861), 705.4 (1056)

Oldham 568.5 (1348), 764.2 (1812)

Dudley 565.9 (1820), 452.1 (1454)

Stoke-on-Trent 557.8 (1430), 436.1 (1118)

East Lindsey 554.6 (786), 347.9 (493)

Kirklees 553.4 (2434), 571.9 (2515)

North East Lincolnshire 537.7 (858), 638.6 (1019)

Scarborough 533.3 (580), 428.5 (466)

Bradford 532.3 (2873), 587.1 (3169)

Oadby and Wigston 527.9 (301), 391.1 (223)

Leicester 526.2 (1864), 418.7 (1483)

Rochdale 524.3 (1166), 618.2 (1375)

Thanet 520.0 (738), 290.3 (412)

Sandwell 507.5 (1667), 428.4 (1407)

Middlesbrough 499.4 (704), 395.1 (557)

Redcar and Cleveland 498.0 (683), 392.3 (538)

Bristol 486.4 (2254), 461.6 (2139)