THE total number of new coronavirus cases across Cheshire East and West in 24 hours has fallen for the second day in a row.

Latest figures from Public Health England show how many Covid-19 cases there were as of 9am today, October 22.

In Cheshire West, including Northwich and Winsford, 111 new cases were confirmed in the 24 hours up to 9am today.

That takes the borough’s total to 4,751 since the pandemic started.

In Cheshire East, including Knutsford and Middlewich, 96 new cases were confirmed in the 24 hours up to 9am today.

Those cases see the borough pass the 5,000-case mark since the pandemic began, with a total of 5,045.

Overall across the two boroughs, 207 cases were confirmed in 24 hours, down from 244 new cases in the 24 hours up to 9am on Wednesday and 262 in the 24 hours up to 9am on Tuesday.

The number of new cases in 24 hours across the UK has also fallen today, from Wednesday’s record high figure of 26,688 to 21,242 up to 9am today.

Ian Ashworth, director of public health for Cheshire West, told a meeting on Tuesday that there had been signs of the borough’s infection rate coming down since Tier 2 restrictions began last week – although it was too early to tell if this was a definite trend, or a lag in the data.