The number of people with Coronavirus is still rising in Oldham – despite the fact it is falling nationally.

The latest data released by the Office for National Statistics shows that there were 119 positive tests on Thursday, putting the weekly total at 891 which represents a rise of 12.9 per cent.

The daily figure was up from 96.

The rate of increase has come down having been close to 50 per cent in the last week but at a national level this is falling by 7.2 per cent.

On top of this there were four deaths recorded in the town which puts the weekly figure up to 21 which was up by 133.3 per cent.

New data also shows that on January 9 there were 37 people admitted to the Pennine Acute Hospitals with Covid which was takes the total over the previous week to 191 which was a rise of 48.1 per cent.

The latest deaths means that there have been 484 deaths from Covid in Oldham within 28 days of testing positive which represents 204.1 per 100,000 people.

The number of deaths in the town which had Covid recorded as the cause of death stands at 538.

The figures mean Oldham remains one of the worst affected areas in the whole country in terms of the death rate from the pandemic.

The worst affected area was Wigan which has a death rate of 245.8 per 100,000 people.

The other places with a worse figure are Tameside, Sunderland, Stoke on Trent, South Tyneside, Rotherham, Rochdale, Hartlepool, Blackpool and Barnsley.

Oldham was previously thought to have the worst infection rate across the country in August when it was threatened with a local lockdown which was narrowly avoided.

Its cases peaked at 410 on November 2 but had fallen to 59 by the time the UK came out of its circuit breaker lockdown in December.