OVER 500 more cases of coronavirus have been recorded in East Lancashire since tier three restrictions were introduced in the county.

East Lancashire has seen a further 535 cases of the virus over the weekend, with the highest spike in Blackburn with Darwen

Blackburn with Darwen has seen a further 188 cases, with 4,449 cases recorded since the start of the pandemic, up from 4,261.

Burnley had 75 more cases, taking the total in the district to 2,572 cases, up from 2,497.

Pendle has also seen a jump in cases with 77 recorded cases over the weekend, taking their total to 2,479.

Rossendale has now seen 1462 cases in total after a further 86 positive tests were recorded over the weekend, up from 1,376.

Hyndburn has had 49 new cases, taking their total to 1,741 while Ribble Valley has seen a further 60 cases bringing the borough’s total up to 906.

No Lancashire hospitals have recorded any coronavirus deaths since the county was put into tier three lockdowns

East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust have all reported no coronavirus related deaths over the weekend after three deaths were announced on Friday.

The Government said that, as of 9am on Monday, there had been a further 18,804 lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK. It brings the total number of cases in the UK to 741,212.

The Government also said a further 80 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19, as of Monday. This brings the UK total to 43,726.

Separate figures published by the UK’s statistics agencies show there have now been 58,500 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.

Covid-19 case rates have started to fall in some of England’s biggest cities, with the sharpest increases now happening in towns and more suburban areas, latest figures suggest.

Nottingham, Manchester, Sheffield and Newcastle are among the cities where the weekly rate of new Covid-19 cases rose rapidly at the end of September, coinciding with the start of the new university term, but where levels are now coming down.

The rates have been decreasing for several days until October 14, suggesting they are on a downward trend rather than a temporary dip.

Overall the numbers suggest the geographical hotspots for Covid-19 in England may have tilted away from big cities and towards built-up areas that do not necessarily have densely-housed student populations – and that the virus is now being spread increasingly through community infections rather than circulating largely within student accommodation.