256 further coronavirus cases and one more death recorded in Gateshead

The number of coronavirus cases in Gateshead increased by 256 in the last 24 hours, official figures show – and one more death was recorded.

A total of 54,676 people had been confirmed as testing positive for Covid-19 in Gateshead when the UK coronavirus daily dashboard was updated on January 28 (Friday), up from 54,420 on Thursday.

The rate of infection in Gateshead now stands at 27,074 cases per 100,000 people, far higher than the England average of 24,571.

Across the UK, the number of recorded cases increased by 88,506 over the period, to 16,333,980.

People with a positive lateral flow test no longer need to take a follow-up PCR test to confirm the result unless they have coronavirus symptoms.

UK case numbers currently only include LFT results for England and Northern Ireland, with lateral flow testing data for Scotland due to be added in the coming weeks.

There was also one more coronavirus death recorded in the latest 24-hour period in Gateshead.

The dashboard shows 537 people had died in the area by January 28 (Friday) – up from 536 on Thursday.

It means there have been five deaths in the past week, which is a decrease on six the previous week.

They were among 7,512 deaths recorded across the North East.

The figures include anyone who died within 28 days of a positive test result for Covid-19, and whose usual residence was in Gateshead.

Daily death counts are revised each day, with each case backdated to the actual date of death.

The figures also show that four in five people in Gateshead have received two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine.

The latest figures show 143,220 people had received both jabs by January 27 (Thursday) – 79% of those aged 12 and over, based on the number of people on the National Immunisation Management Service database.

Across England, 84% of people aged 12 and above had received a second dose of the jab.

Unlike at local level, the national rate was calculated using mid-2020 population estimates from the Office for National Statistics.