THE latest data suggests that the coronavirus infection rate for South Lakeland is falling overall.

Figures show that, on January 15 - the most recent date for which complete data is available - the rate of people with at least one positive test result per 100,000 of the population in the previous seven-day period stood at 307.

This was up from 301 in the seven-day period ending on January 13, but down from 345 on January 8.

This is in keeping with the national picture, where the figure fell from 642 to 462 between January 4 and 15.

However, there were concerns across the country after the number of recorded deaths from Covid-19 over 24 hours reached a new high of 1,820 on Wednesday. In South Lakeland, the daily number of deaths that had occurred within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test stood at two.

Across the UK, the total number of people who had received the first dose of a vaccination against coronavirus was 4,609,740 as of January 19.

A total of 460,625 had received a second vaccination as of that date.

At a press conference last week, Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned that cancer treatments were being postponed and intensive care units were 'spilling over into adjacent wards'.

"Please stay at home, please protect the NHS and save lives," he said.

"Please remember that this disease can be passed on not just by standing too near someone in a supermarket queue, but also by handling something touched by an infected person.

"And remember also that one in three people with Covid have no symptoms, and that is why that original message of 'hands, face and space', washing your hands, is as important now as it has ever been.

"And it is precisely because we have the hope of that vaccine and the risk of new strains coming from overseas that we must take additional steps now to stop those strains from entering the country."