TRAFFORD'S Covid rates have risen rapidly in the past week and are now the highest in the country.

The town’s figures have almost doubled in a two-week period, with the current infection rate standing at 832.6 cases per 100,000 people in the week ending October 7, according to latest government statistics.

It has now surpassed Kettering to become the area with the highest infection rate in the UK and the number of cases continues to rocket.

Infections in Trafford are up 61 per cent week-on-week, with the main bulk of cases occurring among school-aged youngsters.

For 10-14 year olds the Covid rate is currently over 3,000 – that equates to around one in 30 youngsters testing positive in just one week.

In an attempt to control the case rates, acting Director for Public Health, Helen Gollins, issued new advice on Friday, October 8, instructing all secondary school staff and pupils, primary school staff and parents collecting their children from schools to begin wearing face masks again.

But people seem more relaxed out on the streets of Trafford.

In two hotspot areas, Altrincham and Urmston shoppers were out and about enjoying the sunshine.

Friends and young mums Michelle Corrigan and Amy Clarke were pushing their youngsters along Altrincham high street.

Michelle said: “People are just getting on with it – we’ve been trapped in long enough. We’ve both had both of our jabs, people are being sensible, using hand sanitiser where we can, but people are trying to live normally. You take that risk.”

Amy added: “We just have to think it’s going to be around us for a while now, we’ve both been double jabbed, we spent the first year of our children’s lives locked in, so to be able to be out and about and doing things together is really nice.”

They said that the nursery their children attend has seen cases of Covid among staff and even the children and their friends have experienced nursery closures due to case numbers.

One child, aged one, tested positive, they said.

Michelle added: “But the kids aren’t getting bad symptoms – it’s more all of the other illnesses that have been suppressed during lockdown.”

Amy said she had even been told of a bout of foot and mouth disease going around, but said she felt safe locally.

She added: “I feel like everyone is being sensible in Altrincham.

“If you go into town, walking through the Arndale there’s not a face mask in sight, it’s like there’s no pandemic at all.”

Both mums said they’d resorted to online playdates and park walks with their newborns during lockdown to socialise – with breastfeeding out in the cold proving a challenge.

Couple Joe and Janet Caudrey are originally from Bedfordshire, but Janet’s mum has been living at Timperley Care Home for four years now.

She said not being able to see her mum for a whole year during lockdown was ‘heartbreaking’.

Janet’s mum suffers from dementia and sadly doesn’t remember her daughter.

Joe said: “It’s heartbreaking for you – we lost her long ago. She doesn’t remember, but we do.”

The couple have been up to see Janet’s mother every two weeks since lockdown measures relaxed, staying at a local hotel.

They said they felt safe in Altrincham, and at the hotel where they see lots of face masks and people use hand sanitiser regularly, with a one-way system through the building.

Janet said the care home staff had been brilliant at looking after her mother throughout the pandemic and continue to keep strict controls in place.

She explained: “We have to prove we’ve tested negative before we go with a lateral flow test and while they’ve relaxed things since the days of us having to wear full personal protective equipment, we still have to wear face masks.”

Joe explained the home had been hit really hard at the start of the pandemic.

Janet added that on her mother’s corridor of 25 residents, they lost 10 to Covid.

In Urmston, which was a little less busy than Altrincham town centre in the sun, Katie Curtis and her friend Mia Estella have been working for Scottish Power in the town centre – pitching to the public.

Katie said she hasn’t seen much of a change in people’s behaviour in the last few weeks after Covid cases began to rise.

She said: “When we chat to people they aren’t backing away, they’re touching our tablets etc.

“You see people putting on masks going into stores – particularly mothers with babies and the older generation, but it’s been like that the past three months.”

Katie herself caught Covid and had to stay off work for a week after testing positive. She believes she could have caught it in Urmston town centre.

She added: “I had no symptoms really, just a runny nose, but when I took a test by chance on the way into work, I was positive so had to go home to isolate.

“I’ve been double jabbed, though – so I was ok.”

Mia agreed and said it was definitely the older generation that she was seeing wearing face masks locally, not younger people or school-aged children.

She said: “The footfall here has been incredibly busy, it’s died down a bit now, but you definitely see the older generation with their masks, being more cautious.

“I guess it’s the people who are a lot more scared and timid of catching Covid that are being careful.”

Council leader, Cllr Andrew Western, commented on the need for collective action to help drive down Covid case numbers across the borough.

He said: “We are working across the council to address the rise in rates, in line with advice from public health colleagues. While the rate has increased significantly this is primarily driven by a surge in infections in our school-age population, who are statistically much less likely to become seriously ill from Covid.

“That said we do need to get our rates down in Trafford and I would encourage everybody to follow public health guidance so that together we can bring this surge to an end.”