Liverpool, Nov 27 (IANS): Liverpool, the first British city to conduct mass Covid-19 testing, will lower its restriction level to Tier Two next week, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said.

Cautiously welcoming the "Christmas gift", Liverpool Mayor Joe Anderson on Thursday warned that there is no room for complacency although the virus is in remission in the city, reports Xinhua new agency.

"This hard-won battle to be a Tier Two city is not the end. Covid-19 can bounce back, as it did so devastatingly after the summer holidays," said Anderson.

Liverpool now has become the first city to be placed into, and later out of Tier Three restrictions in England.

In October, local media reported that Liverpool was recording around 700 cases for every 100,000 citizens, one of the highest levels in the UK.

The pandemic left downtown Liverpool, usually a buzzing metropolis, virtually deserted.

On November 6, the UK government launched its first mass testing project in Liverpool to help drive down cases of the virus here.

According to Hancock, now there is continued improvement across the Liverpool city region.

Case rates (including for the over 60s) are decreasing rapidly with some notable improvements in Liverpool, Knowsley and Sefton, as confirmed cases have fallen by 69 per cent over six weeks.