Hertfordshire's public health chief has thanked residents for helping to bring coronavirus infection rates down over the last few weeks.

Health director Jim McManus says he "feared" Hertfordshire would be in a "worse position" than it currently is now because of the new variant as well as Christmas and New Year, and he seemed pleasantly surprised by how much rates had fallen.

But he warned the county "is not out of the woods yet" with case rates still too high, as he urged residents to continue following the rules while England remains in lockdown.

Government data shows coronavirus cases peaked in Hertfordshire at the end of December, when more than 2,000 cases were registered in a single day.

Since then case numbers have declined steadily to below 1,000 cases a day.

In some towns and villages in south and west Hertfordshire, infection rates have more than halved, with notable progress in parts of Watford, St Albans, Bushey, Rickmansworth, and Elstree.

Shortly after New Year, and after multiple reports of house parties across Hertfordshire, Mr McManus said there was "no doubt" there would be a spike in cases from the festive and New Year period, with people having "eased into unsafe behaviours".

Case numbers remained exceptionally high in Hertfordshire over the first week of 2021, but crucially, there was no rapid surge from December's figures, and after a week, new infections began to drop, even though the number of tests being carried out was going up.

Speaking at a media briefing on Friday, Mr McManus said: "We are in a better position than we had feared and (to say) we are grateful is an understatement to our residents.

"If you look at the case rate, clearly lockdown has had an impact but lockdowns generally work if people adhere to the measures, so our residents have clearly done something.

"In that second week of January, the drop started to accelerate, so I think we are in a better position than I had feared. But that is not cause for complacency."

He added: "When we should have been going down during the second lockdown (in November), the whole of the south of England took a turn and started rising dramatically and that was at least partly due to the new (virus) variant.

"We were very worried about it but it seems the message has gotten through to quite a lot of people, that despite the new variant, our numbers are beginning to reduce."

In total, more than 60,000 Hertfordshire residents have officially tested positive for Covid since the pandemic began.

There have been 1,831 deaths of residents in the county who died within 28 days of receiving a positive Covid result, according to government figures.

Watford General Hospital remains severely under pressure.

At its latest count, West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Watford General, was caring for 302 patients as of 8am on January 25, which was down from 347 on January 12.

Better treatments mean patients admitted with Covid have a greater chance of surviving Covid than during the spring, however the trust has record 98 Covid between January 1 and January 23, which follows 106 deaths in December.

Meanwhile, and as of January 21, 70 per cent of Hertfordshire residents aged 80 or over have had their first dose of vaccine (43,047 people), while 23 per cent of Hertfordshire residents aged 75-79 had their first dose (9,243), along with 59 per cent of NHS and social care staff.