72 further coronavirus cases and two more deaths recorded 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 72 in the last 24 hours, official figures show – and two more deaths were recorded.

A total of 102,474 cases had been confirmed in Sandwell when the UK coronavirus daily dashboard was updated on March 3 (Thursday), up from 102,402 on Wednesday.

The cumulative rate of infection in Sandwell, which covers the whole pandemic, stands at 31,143 cases per 100,000 people, far higher 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 two more coronavirus deaths recorded in the latest 24-hour period in Sandwell.

The dashboard shows 1,226 people had died in the area by March 3 (Thursday) – up from 1,224 on Wednesday.

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

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

The latest figures show 144,340 people had received a booster or third dose by March 2 (Wednesday) – 47% of those aged 12 and over, based on the number of people on the National Immunisation Management Service database.

A total of 212,967 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.