CLOSE to 100 people are receiving care at Warrington Hospital after contracting coronavirus.

This is according to the latest Covid-19 update issued by Warrington and Halton Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust this afternoon, Tuesday.

At present, 99 beds at the Lovely Lane site are occupied by patients that have tested positive for the virus in the past 14 days or less.

Despite this, none are being cared for in the hospital’s intensive care unit.

Since the start of the pandemic, 646 people have sadly died at Warrington Hospital after contracting coronavirus.

However, 3,448 have been discharged to date by doctors after recovering from the virus.

Across Warrington as a whole, the rate of Covid-19 infection is higher than the national average.

During the week up to March 23, which is the most recent period for which data is available, 1,922 cases of Covid were detected in the town.

This demonstrates a rate of transmission of 917.9 cases among every 100,000 residents.

This is slightly higher than the UK rate of 901.8 per 100,000 population, with 604,919 cases recorded during that seven-day period.