305 further coronavirus cases and five more deaths recorded in St Helens

The number of coronavirus cases in St Helens increased by 305 over the bank holiday weekend, official figures show – and five more deaths were recorded.

A total of 24,703 people had been confirmed as testing positive for Covid-19 in St Helens when the UK coronavirus daily dashboard was updated on August 31 (Tuesday), up from 24,398 on Friday.

The rate of infection in St Helens now stands at 13,641 cases per 100,000 people, far higher than the England average of 10,398.

Across the UK, the number of recorded cases increased by 123,182 over the period, to 6,789,581.

There were also five more coronavirus deaths recorded over the bank holiday weekend in St Helens.

The dashboard shows 488 people had died in the area by August 31 (Tuesday) – up from 483 on Friday.

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

They were among 18,810 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 117,727 people had received both jabs by August 30 (Monday) – 77% of those aged 18 and over, based on the number of people on the National Immunisation Management Service database.

Across England, 78% of people aged 16 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.