THE number of people who have tested positive for Covid in Oldham has fallen over the last day but are still rising week on week.

The most recent data from the Office of National Statistics shows that 101 were found to have the infection, which was an decrease of 11.

The figure means over the previous seven days 736 people in the town have been found to have Covid, which was an increase of 287 from the previous week.

There were no deaths recorded in the most recent daily data but there were 17 deaths over the last week which was an increase of six from the week before that.

In total, 458 people in Oldham have died within 28 days of testing positive for the virus while there were 514 deaths which had Covid recorded on the death certificate.

The latest figures mean 17,214 people in the town have tested positive.

The UK was placed in another national lockdown yesterday with similar restrictions put in place to the first lockdown in March last year.

The move comes in response to a new strain of the virus which is more capable of spreading from person to person and scientists says could increase the R rate by 0.4

However it has mainly been circulating in Kent and London.

The infection rate in Oldham is still believed to be between 0.9 and 1.1 and the infection rate is about average for the country.

Cases in Oldham peaked on November 2 at 409 but infections fell during the time the UK entered its circuit break.

In August last year it was believed to be the highest infected area and was threatened with a local lockdown which would have meant businesses closing, however this was narrowly avoided.

The latest data for admissions to the Pennine Acute Hospitals for those with Covid is only available up until the end of December.

This shows between December 20 and 27 120 people were hospitalised with the virus, which was an increase of three from the previous week.