524 further coronavirus cases and two more deaths recorded in Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon

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 Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon increased by 524 over the weekend, official figures show – and two more deaths were recorded.

A total of 38,835 people had been confirmed as testing positive for Covid-19 in Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon when the UK coronavirus daily dashboard was updated on December 6 (Monday), up from 38,311 on Friday.

The rate of infection in Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon now stands at 17,877 cases per 100,000 people, higher than the Northern Ireland average of 17,400.

Across the UK, the number of recorded cases increased by 135,592 over the period, to 10,515,239.

There were also two more coronavirus deaths recorded over the weekend in Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon.

The dashboard shows 396 people had died in the area by December 6 (Monday) – up from 394 on Friday.

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

They were among 2,902 deaths recorded across Northern Ireland.

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

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

Figures reported on a Monday are likely to be lower as a result of a lag in reporting deaths over the weekend.