122 further coronavirus cases and two more deaths recorded in St Helens

The number of coronavirus cases in St Helens increased by 122 in the last 24 hours, official figures show – and two more deaths were recorded.

A total of 22,983 people had been confirmed as testing positive for Covid-19 in St Helens when the UK coronavirus daily dashboard was updated on August 11 (Wednesday), up from 22,861 on Tuesday.

The rate of infection in St Helens now stands at 12,691 cases per 100,000 people, far higher than the England average of 9,498.

Across the UK, the number of recorded cases increased by 29,260 over the period, to 6,146,800 – although the latest figure does not include the number of new cases in Wales due to a technical issue reported by Public Health Wales.

There were also two more coronavirus deaths recorded in the latest 24-hour period in St Helens.

The dashboard shows 476 people had died in the area by August 11 (Wednesday) – up from 474 on Tuesday.

It means there have been three deaths in the past week, which is the same as the previous week.

They were among 18,556 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 St Helens.

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

The figures also show that three-quarters of people in St Helens have received two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine.

The latest figures show 111,655 people had received both jabs by August 10 (Tuesday) – 73% of those aged 18 and over, based on the number of people on the National Immunisation Management Service database.

Across England, 75% of people aged 18 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.