187 further coronavirus cases in St Helens

File photo dated 31/07/21 of a person receiving a Covid-19 jab. More than a million people in England have only had one Covid-19 vaccine, the NHS has said as it encouraged people to come forward for their second jab.

The number of coronavirus cases in St Helens increased by 187 over the weekend, official figures show.

A total of 58,312 cases had been confirmed in St Helens when the UK coronavirus daily dashboard was updated on February 14 (Monday), up from 58,125 on Friday.

The cumulativerate of infection in St Helens, which covers the whole pandemic, stands at 32,200 cases per 100,000 people, far higher than the England average of 27,672.

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 127,514 over the period, to 18,348,029.

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 now include LFT results for England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

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

The dashboard shows 594 people had died in the area by February 14 (Monday) – which was unchanged from Friday.

It means there have been two deaths in the past week, which is a decrease on nine the previous week.

They were among 22,580 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, 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 four in five people in St Helens have received two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine.

The latest figures show 131,541 people had received both jabs by February 13 (Sunday) – 80% of those aged 12 and over, based on the number of people on the National Immunisation Management Service database.

Across England, 85% 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.