'Significant incident' as Mersey begins to burst its banks

Plus the latest Covid-19 data in Greater Manchester

Good evening members — we delayed today’s newsletter so we could cover the latest Covid-19 numbers in Greater Manchester, which were released by Andy Burnham’s team this afternoon.

What do they show? Case rates falling, and pressure on hospitals continuing to increase, with almost as many Covid-19 patients in critical wards now than we had at the peak in November. Around 7% of GM residents have now received their first dose of one of the vaccines, up from around 3% last week.

Before that, an update on the flooding being caused by Storm Christoph. “There are messages that people need to hear before tea time,” Burnham told reporters at his press conference earlier, and we’ve got those messages below.