TRAFFORD'S Covid rates and the number of hospitalisations with the virus are rising, health bosses have warned.

Eleanor Roaf, Trafford’s Director for Public Health, said her team were pleased national restrictions had not yet been lifted so the area can get on top of the virus again.

Speaking at a public engagement board meeting, Ms Roaf said: “We continue to see our rates rising and while the relatively good news is that our rates in Trafford are now the third lowest in Greater Manchester, we’re still the 17th highest in England.

“All ten Greater Manchester boroughs are now in the top 20 in England.

“What we’ve seen when we’ve been in peaks is that our rates go up very much more quickly than they come down.”

Cllr Mike Freeman was chairing the meeting and expressed his own concerns.

He said: “This meeting comes at a time when, having made steps forwards, we seem to be making some steps backwards.”

Trafford’s infection rate stands at 200 cases per 100,000 people for its general population, but for its older age groups it is much lower at 45 per 100,000.

Ms Roaf said while the rate in the borough’s older population is substantially lower, it remains ‘worrying’ with the number of people being hospitalised with Covid increasing.

She added: “The good news is that the vaccination does seem to be holding and we’re hoping that will remain although hospitalisations are now rising.

“This is a point where we need to continue taking this extremely seriously.

“We’re very pleased that the restrictions have not been raised and we have a bit more time to get on top of it over the next four weeks.

"If we can get our vaccination rates up and also do everything we can around the contact tracing and make sure people are self isolating.”

Ms Roaf said rates in Trafford’s under 40s are particularly high and the highest rates are among the borough’s 17 to 21-year-olds.

There are cases present across the whole of the borough currently.

The health boss added: “Even if you’re fully vaccinated, it’s unlikely that everyone you mix with will have been vaccinated, so we just need to take additional care at the moment so that it doesn’t get into our most vulnerable populations.

“And in the younger population, while the risk of death is much lower, long Covid is a significant risk to that age group – the symptoms can be very, very nasty and have a massive impact on people’s lives – so I would really urge people to be extremely cautious.”

Ms Roaf added she understood that it was likely only those working in public health who were pleased by the news last week that national restrictions are to remain in place until July 19.

She said: “On a personal level I’m as disappointed as anyone else, but I do think this gives us an opportunity to allow the vaccinations to start working and to get on top of things so we can have a much better summer, autumn and winter going forward.”