THERE has been a big drop in the number of Covid-19 infections in Shropshire during the past week.

But it is not all good news as a large number of hospital beds are being occupied by people being treated for the virus.

During the last week for which figures are available there were 69 beds in hospitals in the county occupied by people with the virus and three people died with a diagnosis of Covid-19.

“The number of Covid-19 cases in Shropshire has fallen by nearly 50per cent in this time period,” said Rachel Robinson, Shropshire’s director of public health.

“This rapid decrease mirrors national and regional trends. We have, however, continued to see outbreaks, particularly in our schools and care homes. We do need to be cautious with the interpretation of the data on total cases compared to previous weeks, as the overall numbers will be impacted by recent policy changes, particularly the removed need for a confirmatory PCR test.”