THE leader of Colchester Council has praised residents of the town for sticking to lockdown rules and helping to bring down Covid infection rates.

The borough’s infection rate continues to drop and has reached its lowest point since the beginning of December.

It is now 88.9 cases per 100,000 people, with 173 cases confirmed in the week to February 12.

This has dropped more than 50 per cent from 210.1 cases per 100,000 people a week earlier.

Mark Cory said residents of the borough had done well to bring down rates so quickly, with the infection rate in mid January at almost 900 cases per 100,000 people.

He said: “The rate is still too high but it shows acting collectively we are doing a good job - the people of Colchester and the members of the One Colchester partnership.

“Working together we are doing the right thing. The police have told me compliance in Essex is very good.

“People are doing what they have been asked to do and we are seeing rates dropping dramatically.”

He added: “We must keep following the rules for now but there is light at the end of the tunnel with the falling rates, the vaccine roll out and the Government looking at cautiously relaxing restrictions. I am cautiously optimistic.”

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Mr Cory praised the work being done by volunteers and NHS staff at the mass vaccination centre at Colchester United’s stadium after spending time volunteering himself.

He said he remained confident the town would successfully recover from the pandemic once rates were low enough and the vaccine had reached the most vulnerable.

He said: “I do think Colchester is ready to bounce back from this when things start to reopen again.

“As a council we have been quick at distributing Government support to businesses.

“We are planning to invest millions in the coming years and we are doing everything we can to see the borough through this.”

According to the latest NHS England figures there have been a total of 1,133 Covid deaths at the East Suffolk and North Essex Trust, which runs Colchester and Ipswich hospitals.

Six of these deaths were confirmed yesterday whilst 42 deaths of Covid patients have been confirmed at the trust in the last seven days.

Covid rates across all parts of Essex are falling rapidly.

Tendring, which continues to have the highest infection rate in Essex, has seen its rate drop to 178.8 cases per 100,000 people in the seven days to February 12.

This is because there were 262 confirmed cases of Covid during this week.

The rate in the district was 250.4 cases per 100,000 people a week earlier.