445 further coronavirus cases in Knowsley

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 Knowsley increased by 445 over the weekend, official figures show.

A total of 55,940 cases had been confirmed in Knowsley when the UK coronavirus daily dashboard was updated on March 21 (Monday), up from 55,495 on Friday.

The cumulative rate of infection in Knowsley, which covers the whole pandemic, stands at 36,694 cases per 100,000 people, far higher than the England average of 30,269.

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 225,672 over the last 24 hours, to 20,319,434.

This figure includes cases not reported by Public Health Scotland yesterday due to a technical issue.

There were no new coronavirus deaths recorded over the weekend in Knowsley.

The dashboard shows 525 people had died in the area by March 21 (Monday) – which was unchanged from Friday.

It means there have been no deaths in the past week, which is a decrease on one the previous week.

They were among 22,998 deaths recorded across the North West.

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

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.

Figures reported on a Monday are likely to be lower as a result of a lag in reporting deaths over the weekend.

The figures also show that more than half of people in Knowsley have received a booster dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.

The latest figures show 75,034 people had received a booster or third dose by March 20 (Sunday) – 52% of those aged 12 and over, based on the number of people on the National Immunisation Management Service database.

A total of 102,698 people (72%) had received two jabs by that date.

Across England, 67% 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.