The death rate from Covid in Oldham has plummeted to its lowest level this year, as no more fatalities were recorded today.

Data released by the Office for National Statistics shows that there have been just five deaths in the last week which came within 28 days of testing positive for the virus.

The figure means is a welcome fall of 72.2 per cent from the week before this.

Across the country as a whole this is dropping by 34.7 per cent, meaning Oldham is now doing almost twice as well in shedding deaths from the virus.

There were fears last month that the town was lagging behind the rest of the country as it had a rising death rate while this was dropping across the rest of the UK.

The number of cases recorded in the area today was 30, which is the lowest daily total recorded so far this year.

Over the last seven days there have been 300 positive tests in the town, which is a drop of 14.3 per cent during from the week before this.

Across the country this figure is falling 28.7 per cent so Oldham is still lagging in this area.

The r rate, the rate at which one person passes on the virus to another, remains at between 0.6 and 0.9 for both the north west and the whole of the UK.

When this figure is above one, the virus spreads exponentially, whereas below one the virus will die out eventually.

The latest number here means that both the north west and the country as a whole are on track to eliminate the virus if they avoid any increase in the reproduction rate.

The recent data comes as the country approaches the two month mark since the latest lockdown began, which was prompted by a new variant of the virus in the South East which was thought to be more transmissible and had the potential to increase the R by 0.4.

The latest data shows the UK has passed the 20 million mark of people who have bene given their first dose of the vaccine, with 20,275,451 people having received this.

A further 815,816 have been given their second dose of the vaccine.