SIX people in the Barrow area died last week after testing positive for Covid-19.

A total of 150 people have now died in the borough following a positive test, according to government statistics.

The latest figure marked a drop of 50 per cent in the number of deaths from the previous week.

The figures cover the period between February 1 and 6.

The Government said a further 828 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for the virus as of Saturday.

It brings the UK total to 112,092.

Separate figures published by the UK’s statistics agencies for deaths where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificates show there have now been 129,000 deaths involving the virus.

There have been a further 18,262 lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK, according to the latest figures.

It brings the total number of cases across the UK to 3,929,835.

Some 154 people in the Barrow borough tested positive in the last seven-day period, the Government said - a drop of 25 per cent from the previous week.

It gives the area a weekly infection rate of 298.3. The national average 228.2

There were 20 new cases, according to the most recent data published on Saturday.

According to the Government, 3,829 have been confirmed as positive for Covid in the borough since the start of the pandemic.

There were 120 new cases of Covid-19 recorded in Cumbria in the last 24 hour period and more than 1,000 in the past week.

Some 91 people in South Lakeland tested positive, a drop of 45.5 per cent from the previous seven days.

Cumbria’s public health director Colin Cox said last week that signs showed the county was ‘past the peak’ of the second wave of Covid.

Presenting a detailed overview of the recent progress in fighting Covid-19 to Cumbria County Council’s Health and Wellbeing Board, he explained that ‘things are moving in the right direction’, according to the most recent data.

Based on the latest available statistics on new Covid-19 cases, Mr Cox declared that it is now ‘very clear’ that Cumbria, like the rest of the country, is ‘past the peak’ of the second coronavirus wave.

The peak of the second wave came in the first week of January, across all parts of Cumbria.

Health leaders said they were confident that both north and south Cumbria was on course to have vaccinated the ‘vast majority’ of the four highest priority groups by the middle of February.

These are care home residents, all those over the age of 70 and frontline health and social care workers