328 further coronavirus cases and five more deaths recorded in Birmingham

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 Birmingham increased by 328 in the last 24 hours, official figures show – and five more deaths were recorded.

A total of 318,063 cases had been confirmed in Birmingham when the UK coronavirus daily dashboard was updated on March 3 (Thursday), up from 317,735 on Wednesday.

The cumulative rate of infection in Birmingham, which covers the whole pandemic, stands at 27,887 cases per 100,000 people, lower than the England average of 28,560.

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 45,375 over the period, to 19,074,696.

There were also five more coronavirus deaths recorded in the latest 24-hour period in Birmingham.

The dashboard shows 3,365 people had died in the area by March 3 (Thursday) – up from 3,360 on Wednesday.

It means there have been 15 deaths in the past week, which is the same as the previous week.

They were among 16,793 deaths recorded across the West Midlands.

The figures include anyone who died within 28 days of a positive test result for Covid-19, and whose usual residence was in Birmingham.

The UKHSA cautioned that today's Covid-19 death figures in England include some not reported yesterday, due to a technical issue.

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

The figures also show that more than two in five people in Birmingham have received a booster dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.

The latest figures show 446,433 people had received a booster or third dose by March 2 (Wednesday) – 41% of those aged 12 and over, based on the number of people on the National Immunisation Management Service database.

A total of 677,718 people (62%) had received two jabs by that date.

Across England, 66% 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.