THERE has been a continued fall in the number of Covid-19 infections in Shropshire.

During the seven day period up to February 11 there were 492 new cases which represented a fall of 23 per cent.

Of these cases, 119 involved people under the age of 30 and 58 those aged 70 or over.

The cases of serious illness and death has been shown to rise exponentially with age.

But there is no cause for complacency as the rolling average for the county was 152 per 100,000 population which although well below the West Midlands average of 196 remains slightly above the figure of 148 for England.

The picture was significantly better in south Shropshire than in the north of the county.

North Shropshire accounted for 44 per cent of cases, 32 per cent of them were in Shrewsbury and Atcham and 24 per cent in south Shropshire.

In Ludlow there were 13 cases in the week up until February 13 which was an increase of one over the previous seven days.

In Craven Arms there were just three cases, a fall of more than 50 per cent.

There was also a fall in positive cases in Cleobury Mortimer with 13, a reduction of five. In Church Stretton there were six cases, down one on the previous week.

The fall in cases is in line with what has been happening across the rest of the country and follows the lockdown introduced after Christmas.

There were 40 Covid related deaths in Shropshire hospitals and 101 beds at the county’s two acute hospitals, the Royal Shrewsbury and the Princess Royal in Telford, were occupied by people with the virus.