With schools reopening their doors from Monday, the severity of the coronavirus pandemic appears to be decreasing, and optimism about the future is beginning to bloom.

At the time of publishing, St Albans had 68 confirmed coronavirus cases between February 20 and February 26, down 27 compared with the previous week.

Across St Albans district, there are currently 46 cases per 100,000 people; this being the second consecutive week cases have sat below 100 per 100,000 since the Herts Ad commenced these weekly bulletins.

Last week, this number sat at 64 cases per 100,000.

A total of 7,631 cases have been recorded in St Albans up to March 1.

The average area in England has 77 infections per 100,000, which again shows a significant decrease across the nation, as well as in our area.

This comes as the furlough scheme has been confirmed to be extended until the end of September. Chancellor Rishi Sunak will formally confirm this in the Budget later today.

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As of March 1, 2,403 people across Herts are registered to have died within 28 days of their first positive coronavirus test, with 300 of those hailing from St Albans district.

According to the government's coronavirus dashboard, 123,296 people in the UK have died with the virus since records began last March.

The UK’s R-number, which represents the rate of transmission, remains between 0.6 and 0.9, meaning the rate of transmission is declining across the whole of the UK as the R-number sits below one. In the East of England, the R-number continues to sit between 0.6 and 0.8 as of February 26.