Multiple areas in Southend saw Covid cases drop by more than half in the last week.

The latest data for the seven days to January 11 shows the number of new cases in the borough was 1,845 – 47 per cent down on the week before.

The infection rate remains just above 1,000 cases per 100,000 people.

Infections are now falling in all neighbourhoods in Southend, with some seeing cases drop by more than half.

Those areas were:

Great Wakering and Foulness

  • 59 new cases (down 99)

Thorpe Bay

  • 75 new cases (down 86)

Southend Central

  • 119 new cases (down 131)

Prittlewell

  • 88 new cases (down 88)

Eastwood

  • 87 new cases (down 127)

Eastwood Park

  • 81 new cases (down 110)

Belfairs

  • 68 new cases (down 158)

Blenheim Park

  • 102 new cases (down 105)

Leigh

  • 72 new cases (112)

The continued drop in UK Covid cases indicates the Omicron wave may well be “turning around”, a leading expert advising the Government has said.

Prof Mike Tildesley, from the University of Warwick and a member of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Modelling group (Spi-M), said that the latest case figures were “cautiously good news” and he hoped the country may have a “flu-type” relationship with the virus by the end of the year.

The latest data shows a 38% drop over the last seven days across the UK in the numbers testing positive for Covid-19, with 70,924 new cases reported on Sunday.

Read more >> Met Office weather warning in place across Essex tonight

Prof Tildesley told BBC Breakfast “it does look like across the whole of the country cases do seem to be falling”, adding: “We have had very, very high case numbers throughout late December and early January – we peaked about 200,000 at one point.

“We do now seem to be a little bit beyond that. Hospital admissions are still relatively high albeit there is some evidence that maybe they’re plateauing or possibly going down in London, which is cautiously good news.

“I would say we probably need about an extra week of data to really see the effect of children going back to school – we’re still only two weeks since children went back to school – but if we still see that over the next week or so, I’d be pretty confident that we are seeing this wave turning around.”