Trafford has the lowest infection rate of any Greater Manchester borough – but residents have been warned the borough could quickly find itself back ‘in jeopardy’ if people do not follow the rules.

As of March 29, the area had an infection rate of 55.6 cases per 100,000 people. It is the lowest in the city region, with Bury next lowest at 67 per 100,000, although it has crept up slightly to just over the national average.

Eleanor Roaf, Trafford’s director for public health, told the borough’s public engagement board that the situation ‘is very much a better picture than we have been seeing’ with numbers continuing to fall.

“The really good news is that our rates now are as low as they’ve been since early September, so we have really seen a significant decrease.”

The health boss shared the ‘fantastic news’ that the borough currently has no outbreaks in its care homes.

Last week also marked a week of zero cases found in the over-70 age bracket, with Trafford’s highest infection rates in its working age population, Ms Roaf explained.

But she warned residents to stay vigilant despite the borough’s success.

“Even in Trafford the risk is not zero – there is still a risk of Covid.

"We still have cases throughout the borough.

"It is very much that we need to be remembering the lockdown release dates are to an extend in our own hands and we need to make sure that we are all complying with restrictions to get the rates down across Greater Manchester.

“We absolutely are dependent on the rest of Greater Manchester and the rest of Greater Manchester is dependent on us.

“It’s only a few weeks, please do everything you can.

"There is Covid out there and we need to be really aware of it because if we don’t all try to stick to the rules quite strictly now we could put ourselves back in jeopardy.”

She encouraged all those in vulnerability categories one to nine to get vaccinated, with second doses to begin in April.

Ms Roaf also said the uptake of the vaccine had been really positive, particularly in initially sceptical groups.

She said: “We’re starting to see an increase in uptake in some of our groups that had a lack of confidence in the vaccine initially.

"That is fantastic news," she added.

"We’re seeing our biggest increases have been in our black British population and our Asian British populations. We’re absolutely delighted to see that.”

Ms Roaf said there was new guidance on self-isolation and new support available for those who have to self-isolate.

Both Rebecca Demaine, of Trafford CCG, and Ms Roaf encouraged everyone eligible for their second dose to take it up.