At the time of publishing, St Albans had 880 confirmed coronavirus cases between January 2 and January 8, down 247 compared with the previous week.

There are 593 cases per 100,000 people across the district, totalling 5,879 cases as of January 12, compared to 746 cases per 100,000 totalling 5,080 cases last week (as of January 5).

READ LAST WEEKS' STATS: District's COVID-19 cases continue to rise under new national lockdown

Although the district is seeing a fall in cases for the first time since a third national lockdown was announced, St Albans' coronavirus cases still sit above England’s 'average area', which currently stands at 553 cases per 100,000 people.

England's 'average area' means the middle ranking council or local government district when ranked by cases per 100,000 people.

This comes as ONS figures confirm that more than two million people across England have had the first dose of either a Pfizer-BioNTech or Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine.

RELATED STORY: Residents receive COVID-19 vaccinations as planned despite 'chaotic' delays

News this week has reiterated the government's message to stay home, with local police forced to clarify how far residents can travel away from home for their allocated daily exercise. This is in response to Derbyshire Police fining two women for driving five miles to meet for a walk, and peculation that the PM broke national lockdown rules by cycling seven miles.

READ MORE: Police forces clarify 'local' as fines dished out nationally to COVID-19 rulebreakers

St Albans’ coronavirus death toll has increased to 190 registered to January 1.

The UK’s R-number, which represents the rate of transmission, has increased slightly to between 1.1 and 1.4.

The R number represents the average number of people an infected person will pass the disease on to.

If R is below one, then the number of people contracting the disease will fall; if it is above one, the number will grow.