338 further coronavirus cases in Sefton

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 Sefton increased by 338 in the last 24 hours, official figures show.

A total of 89,015 cases had been confirmed in Sefton when the UK coronavirus daily dashboard was updated on March 15 (Tuesday), up from 88,677 on Monday.

The cumulative rate of infection in Sefton, which covers the whole pandemic, stands at 32,264 cases per 100,000 people, far higher than the England average of 29,547.

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 119,229 over the last 24 hours, to 19,820,181.

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

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

The dashboard shows 989 people had died in the area by March 15 (Tuesday) – which was unchanged from Monday.

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

They were among 22,950 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 Sefton.

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 nearly two-thirds of people in Sefton have received a booster dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.

The latest figures show 160,284 people had received a booster or third dose by March 14 (Monday) – 63% of those aged 12 and over, based on the number of people on the National Immunisation Management Service database.

A total of 201,989 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.