242 further coronavirus cases and four more deaths recorded in St Helens

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 St Helens increased by 242 in the last 24 hours, official figures show – and four more deaths were recorded.

A total of 62,684 cases had been confirmed in St Helens when the UK coronavirus daily dashboard was updated on March 23 (Wednesday), up from 62,442 on Tuesday.

The cumulative rate of infection in St Helens, which covers the whole pandemic, stands at 34,614 cases per 100,000 people, far higher than the England average of 30,552.

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 102,267 over the last 24 hours, to 20,515,998.

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

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

The dashboard shows 613 people had died in the area by March 23 (Wednesday) – up from 609 on Tuesday.

It means there have been six deaths in the past week, which is an increase on four the previous week.

They were among 23,043 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 nearly two-thirds of people in St Helens have received a booster dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.

The latest figures show 104,206 people had received a booster or third dose by March 22 (Tuesday) – 63% of those aged 12 and over, based on the number of people on the National Immunisation Management Service database.

A total of 133,033 people (81%) 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.