Coronavirus in Berkshire round up

COVID-19 infection rates are falling across all Berkshire areas, according to the latest statistics.

Public Health England has recorded 203 lab-confirmed cases in areas including Reading, Bracknell, Wokingham, West Berkshire, Slough and Windsor and Maidenhead.

These figures, correct as of Tuesday, January 26, at 4pm, bring the county's lab-confirmed positive Covid-19 tests total to 47,117, according to Public Health England.

Data shows over the past week all these areas of Berkshire have shown a drop in the seven day infection rates, the lowest rate being recorded in West Berkshire (274.5).

Slough remains the area in Berkshire with the highest infection rate (796.4) although this has fallen in comparison to recent weeks.

The local breakdown for the past 24 hours as follows:

Reading - 24 cases, 9,134 total
West Berkshire - 38 cases, 5,182 total
Bracknell - 20 cases, 5,982 total
Wokingham - 18 cases, 7,003 total
Slough - 77 cases, 12,629 total
Windsor and Maidenhead - 26 cases, 7,187 total

There have now been 3,689,746 people across the UK who have tested positive for Covid-19 - a daily increase of 20,089 positive cases.

The latest seven-day rate per 100,000 people locally are as follows:

Reading - 565 (Compared to 712.1 on Jan 19)
West Berkshire - 274.5 (Compared to 320.6 on Jan 19)
Bracknell - 350.9 (Compared to 439.8 on Jan 19)
Wokingham - 280.5 (Compared to 379.3 on Jan 19)
Slough - 796.4 (Compared to 1,044.5 on Jan 19)
Windsor and Maidenhead - 318.3 (Compared to 446.4 on Jan 19)

In today's national coronavirus news:

Passengers arriving in England from high-risk coronavirus hotspots look set to be made to quarantine in hotels to limit the spread of new variants.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson will discuss the proposals - designed to ensure people follow self-isolation rules - with senior ministers at the "Covid Operations" committee on Tuesday.

Vaccines Minister Nadhim Zahawi warned that the country needs to be "very careful" as new strains emerge, and said an announcement on the quarantine plans would be made later.

He told Sky News: "There will be an announcement on this issue later on today, so I can only say to you that it is the right thing to do, because I am the Vaccines Minister, that as we vaccinate more of the adult population, if there are new variants like the South African or the Brazilian variants, we need to be very careful.

"We acted on those very quickly and of course dealt with travel from those countries, and from Portugal and elsewhere, rapidly so it is important we continue to review our border policy and an announcement will be made when a decision has been taken.

"And of course the industry itself will be engaged with heavily, including (Health Secretary) Matt Hancock engaging with the industry to explain the decision making at health, as well as of course the business department with the Business Secretary."

Home Secretary Priti Patel declined to comment on "speculation" about quarantine hotels as she answered an urgent question in the Commons.

But she said the Government "will not hesitate to take further action" to protect the UK from new strains, and said "measures are always under review".