We published a story about Bolton residents being urged to work together to contain coronavirus and protect themselves and loved ones this Christmas — as lockdown measures and restrictions come into force in parts of Europe and Ireland.

The health service in Bolton is already facing challenges from winter pressures with the emergence of seasonal illnesses showing much earlier in the year, such as respiratory illnesses in children and the vomiting bug norovirus.

However our readers have reacted online to the news.

Carl Howcroft said: "It will never get back to normality while they are still logging positive cases. The vaccine was to stop you getting a serious case and stop hospitalisation not to prevent it. Therefore we should only be logging hospitalisation cases now. We don’t log flu, only deaths!"

Mary Moore said: "We know it will happen at Xmas once again"

Chloe Elizabeth said: "We don't need another lockdown. Lockdowns aren't working clearly, just like the masks and social distancing. We need to just live with it unfortunately."

Wayne Hamer said: "Just supposing we hit 100% vaccination rate and cases rise? Another lockdown?"