402 further coronavirus cases in Sandwell

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 Sandwell increased by 402 over the weekend, official figures show.

A total of 103,641 cases had been confirmed in Sandwell when the UK coronavirus daily dashboard was updated on March 14 (Monday), up from 103,239 on Friday.

The cumulative rate of infection in Sandwell, which covers the whole pandemic, stands at 31,498 cases per 100,000 people, far higher than the England average of 29,434.

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 170,467 over the period, to 19,700,952 – though figures for Scotland were not included due to a technical issue.

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

The dashboard shows 1,229 people had died in the area by March 14 (Monday) – which was unchanged from Friday.

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

They were among 16,880 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 Sandwell.

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 nearly half of people in Sandwell have received a booster dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.

The latest figures show 144,943 people had received a booster or third dose by March 13 (Sunday) – 47% of those aged 12 and over, based on the number of people on the National Immunisation Management Service database.

A total of 213,720 people (69%) 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.