TODAY sees the start of the last full week of the current national lockdown restrictions.

The current set of restrictions is due to end in 10 days, next Wednesday, December 2.

The Government will announce later today what the new tier system will look like with areas set to find out what restrictions they will get on Thursday.

Of course in Warrington, extra restrictions have been in place for far longer with Tier 3 changes brought in on October 27.

Some form of extra restrictions on mixing was first introduced towards the end of September.

So what is the current situation in Warrington?

Has the number of new cases fallen?

Yes. The latest figures show 520 new positive cases in the past seven days - the first time that figure has been below 600 since early October.

When Warrington entered Tier 3, it was around 800, and it peaked at almost 1,000.

The rate of 247.6 per 100,000 people is now around the England average.

So there has been a significant fall in the number of people catching Covid-19.

What about in the hospital?

Cases are still high in Warrington Hospital.

The latest data from Friday shows 148 patients are in hospital - that is down from a peak of 170 two weeks ago.

In late October, 117 people were in hospital.

Figures show that 16 people died in the past week, taking the total number of deaths to 236 since the start of the pandemic in March.

Public health experts say it takes at least two weeks for a drop in two cases to translate into a drop in hospital admissions.

Warrington Hospital said on Wednesday it had issued a pause on some non-urgent care.

How about elsewhere?

Schools remain badly affected.

There are currently 2,640 students self-isolating in either schools or nurseries.

A total of 48 currently have cases.

On the roads, traffic had fallen significantly in the first week of lockdown.

Council figures showed a 30 per cent reduction of traffic compared to the same week in 2019 and a 12 per cent drop on the week before.

The numbers parking at Time Square car park was also way down, as expected.

It was just 31 per cent of usual levels as non-essential shops were closed.