326 further coronavirus cases and two more deaths recorded in Newcastle

A Coronavirus testing centre in Dalston, east London. There were a further 6,042 lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK as of 9am on Saturday, taking the overall number to 429,277. A further 34 deaths were recorded.

The number of coronavirus cases in Newcastle increased by 326 in the last 24 hours, official figures show – and two more deaths were recorded.

A total of 90,591 cases had been confirmed in Newcastle when the UK coronavirus daily dashboard was updated on February 4 (Friday), up from 90,265 on Thursday.

The rate of infection in Newcastle now stands at 29,525 cases per 100,000 people, far higher than the England average of 26,839.

Since January 31, the UK Health Security Agency has changed the way it reports coronavirus cases.

It means if one person tests positive for the virus more than 90 days after the first infection, two infection episodes will be recorded.

Across the UK, the number of recorded cases increased by 82,053 over the period, to 17,689,885.

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 were also two more coronavirus deaths recorded in the latest 24-hour period in Newcastle.

The dashboard shows 562 people had died in the area by February 4 (Friday) – up from 560 on Thursday.

They were among 7,697 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 Newcastle.

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

The figures also show that more than two-thirds of people in Newcastle have received two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine.

The latest figures show 203,888 people had received both jabs by February 3 (Thursday) – 69% 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.