The number of people infected with coronavirus in Ipswich is continuing to drop below the average for England, latest figures show.

New Public Health England data, which covers the seven days up to January 20, showed Ipswich's infection rate has dropped to 406.1 cases per 100,000 people, down from 600.38 in the previous week.

The most up-to-date figures, released daily, show that Ipswich's infection rate sits just below the England average of 420.22.

In the previous week the average for England was 523.37 cases per 100,000 people.

The figures are based on tests carried out in laboratories (pillar one of the Government’s testing programme) and in the wider community (pillar two).

The rate is expressed as the number of new cases per 100,000 people.

Data for the most recent four days (January 21-24) has been excluded as it is incomplete and does not reflect the true number of cases.

Elsewhere in Suffolk, infection rates in all other districts are also on the decline, despite the rising numbers of patients dying with Covid-19 in hospitals.

Mid Suffolk still has the lowest case rate in the county, with 270.47 cases per 100,000 people - down from 310.89.

The areas of West Suffolk (283.17), Babergh (292.28), and East Suffolk (303.05) also all dropped in the seven days to January 20.

The story is the same in the north of Essex, where figures are continuing to drop, albeit much more slowly.

Uttlesford remains the lowest in the county, after dropping from 439.29 cases per 100,000 in the week up to January 13, to 353.84 in the latest figures.

Tendring remains the most-infected district, with 693.1 cases per 100,000 people. This has dropped from 936.81, however it is still much greater than the England average of 420.22.

The government's latest figures state that a further 610 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Sunday, bringing the UK total to 97,939.

It comes as Health Secretary Matt Hancock has warned the Government is a “long, long, long way” from being able to lift coronavirus lockdown restrictions in England.

Mr Hancock said there was evidence that restrictions in place were having an impact while the vaccination programme was making “brilliant progress”.

However, Mr Hancock said that case numbers were “incredibly high” and the NHS remained under intense pressure.

“There is early evidence that the lockdown is starting to bring cases down but we are a long, long, long way from being low enough because the case rate was incredibly high,” he told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme.

“You can see the pressure on the NHS – you can see it every day.”