‘No room for complacency’: Mayor’s message as coronavirus crisis levels out

Andy Burnham

The number of new cases of coronavirus in Greater Manchester is “levelling off” the Metro Mayor has revealed.

Around 20 people are being admitted to hospital every day due to COVID-19, down from roughly 30 a day last week – although the latest figures show a jump back up to 38 hospital admissions a day.

A total of 136 patients are currently in an intensive care unit (ICU), down from 190 last week.

There are a further 827 patients with COVID-19 who are not in an ICU, down from 942 last week.

Daily deaths from coronavirus have also fallen to 117 people across Greater Manchester, having been at 167 last week.

Mayor Andy Burnham revealed the figures at a remote press conference on Wednesday following the latest Greater Manchester COVID Emergency Committee meeting.

He said: “Overall, the report to the committee was that new cases are now levelling off which of course is good news. It seems that we are indeed passing through the peak and hopefully beyond.

“Of course every single death is a tragedy and it’s awful talking about them in this statistical way, but nevertheless we have to.

“On behalf of all of our leaders, I would like to convey our sincere sympathies to the families concerned.

“There’s no room for complacency. We feel like the trend is down but obviously, we’ll be keeping a close look on that.”

Mr Burnham also revealed that a further 31 care homes in Greater Manchester have alerted Public Health England over a possible coronavirus outbreak, taking the total in the region to 287.

He added: “There is obviously still a real concern around care homes and that is something we’ve got a very, very close eye on indeed.”

Joseph Timan, Local Democracy Reporter