120 further coronavirus cases in South Tyneside

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 South Tyneside increased by 120 in the last 24 hours, official figures show.

A total of 50,126 cases had been confirmed in South Tyneside when the UK coronavirus daily dashboard was updated on March 16 (Wednesday), up from 50,006 on Tuesday.

The cumulative rate of infection in South Tyneside, which covers the whole pandemic, stands at 33,167 cases per 100,000 people, far higher than the England average of 29,682.

In England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, if one person tests positive for the virus more than 90 days after the first infection, two infection episodes will be recorded, according to the UK Health Security Agency.

Across the UK, the number of recorded cases increased by 90,974 over the period, to 19,911,155 – though case figures reported in Scotland cover a period of less than 24 hours.

There were no new coronavirus deaths recorded in the latest 24-hour period in South Tyneside.

The dashboard shows 561 people had died in the area by March 16 (Wednesday) – which was unchanged from Tuesday.

It means there has been one death in the past week, which is the same as the previous week.

They were among 7,984 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 South Tyneside.

Daily death counts are revised each day, with each case backdated to the actual date of death, so some areas might see their figures revised down.

The figures also show that three in five people in South Tyneside have received a booster dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.

The latest figures show 84,310 people had received a booster or third dose by March 15 (Tuesday) – 61% of those aged 12 and over, based on the number of people on the National Immunisation Management Service database.

A total of 108,298 people (79%) had received two jabs by that date.

Across England, 66% of people aged 12 and above had received a booster.

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