Liverpool City Region has three weeks to cut Covid rates to lowest since Summer

People across the Liverpool City Region are being given three weeks to get Coronavirus infection rates of down to the lowest they've been in six months.

With Boris Johnson due to lay out his roadmap for the gradual lifting of lockdown on Monday, health bosses here want infection rates to get down to 25 cases per 100-thousand people, by Monday 8 March.

The latest data shows there are 180 people with the virus per 100 thousand people - down from more than 1,000 in January .

Liverpool's Director of Public Health, Matt Ashton says he's confident we can hit the target:

"The vast majority are following the rules and that's why we've seen the big reduction but what we need to do is everyone to keep playing their part.

"If we all do that then I have absolute confidence we can get under fifty but I hope as low as twenty five per hundred thousand."

"It's going to take time for the vaccine to have maximum impact on our communities so the ambition is to get the rate as low as we possibly can and keep infections as low as we can.

"Is it possible? Yes we can but it's dependent on everyone following the rules and doing the right thing."

Meanwhile Liverpool's Metro Mayor's sent an open letter calling on Downing Street to scrap any idea of going back to a tier system after lockdown.

Steve Rotheram says the previous method was chaotic, confusing and undermined local efforts to tackle the virus.