81 further coronavirus cases in St Helens

The number of coronavirus cases in St Helens increased by 81 in the last 24 hours, official figures show.

A total of 23,539 people had been confirmed as testing positive for Covid-19 in St Helens when the UK coronavirus daily dashboard was updated on August 17 (Tuesday), up from 23,458 on Monday.

The rate of infection in St Helens now stands at 12,998 cases per 100,000 people, far higher than the England average of 9,763.

Across the UK, the number of recorded cases increased by 26,628 over the period, to 6,322,241.

However, there were no new coronavirus deaths recorded in the latest 24-hour period in St Helens.

The dashboard shows 479 people had died in the area by August 17 (Tuesday) – which was unchanged from Monday.

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

They were among 18,644 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.

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 112,877 people had received both jabs by August 16 (Monday) – 74% of those aged 18 and over, based on the number of people on the National Immunisation Management Service database.

Across England, 77% 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.