THE coronavirus infection rate in Thurrock continues to fall - almost as dramatically as it rose in late December and January.

Latest figures show that the borough had 419 cases per 100,000 people in the week ended 24 January. The average area in England had 323 but the gap between that average and the borough figure has diminished significantly in the past couple of weeks.

At one point Thurrock toped the national lost of infections, now it has dropped to around 80th place. There were 730 new cases of infection in the week ended 24 January, down 591 from the week before.

In total there have been 16,314 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the borough.

There have been 328 coronavirus-related deaths registered in Thurrock up to 15 January.