WITH plans for a new post lockdown tier system set to be announced on Thursday, Dudley's health chiefs are hoping to see local infections rates fall.

Dudley has the third highest Covid-19 infection rate in the country, according to most recent figures published by Public Health England.

The infection rate for the borough currently stands at 452.1 cases per 100,000 people and a total of 1,454 cases confirmed in the last week.

However - the ranking is slightly lower than on Tuesday (November 24) when the borough was the second worst hit area of the country for coronavirus cases...behind only Hull which continues to have the highest infection rate nationwide with 530.1 cases per 100,000 people.

The figures, however, lag behind by a few days and cover the week up until November 20 so health bosses in Dudley are hopeful figures over more recent days will start to show cases reducing.

Councillor Nicolas Barlow, Dudley Council's cabinet member for health and adult social care, said: “It has been well documented that our rates have been rising over recent weeks, for a number of reasons including the increased testing we have been doing and the fact that we had fewer restrictions than many parts of the country because we kept our rates low for so long.

“The only way to bring these rates down again is to follow the government rules and put people’s health first.

"We know it is a difficult time, especially with Christmas approaching, but we all have to play our part to tackle this pandemic.

"Hopefully, when the government announces the new tier system we will have been able to reduce our rates by people playing their part.”

Cases of coronavirus confirmed in the borough since the pandemic began are nearing 10,000 (9,781 in total).

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