CORONAVIRUS is on the retreat across the whole Winchester district.

For the second day running there were only nine new cases reported in the Winchester district and only 106 in Hampshire.

The numbers are similar to those of five to six weeks ago before the second lockdown.

In Alresford there have only been 11 new cases in the last seven days, a fall of 30 or 73.2 per cent, taking the rolling rate of 130 per 100,000 people to now below the England average after several days g well above it.

The number of coronavirus cases in the Winchester district increased in the last 24 hours from 1,702 to 1,711 since March, an infection rate of 1,370.3 per 100,000.

The currently worst-affected area in the Winchester district remains 'Winchester East' which comprises Winnall, Highcliffe, Bar End, Wharf Hill and parts of the city centre. In the last seven days there have been 13 cases, a 13.3 per cent drop, or a rolling number of 159.6 per 100,000, still above the England average.

Across the Winchester district the rolling figure is now just 79.3, down in the last 24 hours from 86.5 the previous day.

The figures are based on tests carried out in laboratories (pillar one of the Government's testing programme) and in the wider community (pillar two).

For clarity ‘Winchester district’ comprises more than the built-up city and is the council area which stretches from Micheldever in the north to Southwick in the south, from Sparsholt in the west to Bramdean in the east.

Meanwhile, two more people are reported to have died in Hampshire of Covid-19 in the last 24 hours. The death toll in the county council area was 866.

In Winchester City Council area the figures for deaths remains the same at 95. In Portsmouth it is 98, and 134 in Southampton.

Figures published by NHS England show that over the last 24 hours two people have been reported to have died in the area covered by the Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust which includes the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester.

So far, at Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust there have been 209 recorded deaths, up two; 227 people have died at University Hospital Southampton, no change, whilst at Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust the toll is now 283, no change. Since the start of the pandemic, there have been a total of 743 deaths in the NHS across Hampshire.

The numbers of people in hospitals remains high as there will be a time gap before the reduced infection rates are reflected in patient numbers.

On Friday, the latest day for which figures are available, there were 124 Covid admissions at hospitals across the south-east, including Hampshire.There are 1,265 Covid patients on Sunday and 111 on ventilators.