YORK’S Covid rate has fallen to ten times lower than its peak last month, latest figures have revealed.

The rolling seven-day rate in the City of York Council area in the week to February 15 was 66 cases per 100,000 population, compared with 670 when the pandemic was at its worst locally in early January.

The figure, published yesterday by Public Health England, is similar to the average of about 65 in early-mid December, when York had one of the lowest rates in the country.

The rate in the North Yorkshire County Council area yesterday was 88 per 100,000 and in the East Riding of Yorkshire Council area it was 126.9.

The news came after York council revealed that five wards - Huntington & New Earswick, Westfield, Acomb, Micklegate and Copmanthorpe- had seen statistically significant falls in the number of Covid cases in the seven day period to February 12.

Remaining wards saw no statistically significant change in their rates, said the council’s latest Covid data tracker report.

The report also revealed that:

*In the seven days up to February 14, only eight children of primary and secondary school age tested positive for Covid, down from 19 in the previous seven day period.

*Only eight individuals in the University of York community were self-isolating after a positive test, compared with a peak of 331 on October 19, and seven were self-isolating at York St John University, compared with a peak of 82 on October 8.

*Covid cases have been confirmed in six care homes in the York area involving at least one staff member or resident, up from five care homes with cases a week earlier.

The report also revealed that a total of 54,289 residents in the local authority’s area had received their first dose of vaccination against the coronavirus as of last Wednesday, up by 8,692 on the previous week’s figure of 45,597.

It said 1,077 York people had also received their second dose.

Meanwhile, NHS England said on Saturday that five more Covid patients at the York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust had died, taking the total since the start of the pandemic to 565, but no more Covid deaths were reported yesterday.