243 further coronavirus cases and one more death recorded in Ards and North Down

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 Ards and North Down increased by 243 in the last 24 hours, official figures show – and one more death was recorded.

A total of 49,132 cases had been confirmed in Ards and North Down when the UK coronavirus daily dashboard was updated on March 15 (Tuesday), up from 48,889 on Monday.

The cumulative rate of infection in Ards and North Down, which covers the whole pandemic, stands at 30,318 cases per 100,000 people, far lower than the Northern Ireland average of 34,671.

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 119,229 over the last 24 hours, to 19,820,181.

This figure includes cases not reported by Public Health Scotland yesterday due to a technical issue.

There was also one more coronavirus death recorded in the latest 24-hour period in Ards and North Down.

The dashboard shows 206 people had died in the area by March 15 (Tuesday) – up from 205 on Monday.

It means there has been one death in the past week, which is the same as the previous week.

They were among 3,258 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 Ards and North Down.

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