196 further coronavirus cases and one more death recorded in Belfast

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 Belfast increased by 196 in the last 24 hours, official figures show – and one more death was recorded.

A total of 126,037 cases had been confirmed in Belfast when the UK coronavirus daily dashboard was updated on April 8 (Friday), up from 125,841 on Thursday.

The cumulative rate of infection in Belfast, which covers the whole pandemic, stands at 36,793 cases per 100,000 people, higher than the Northern Ireland average of 36,687.

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.

The end of free tests in England means the reported number of coronavirus cases in the UK is likely to be an underestimate. However, the Office for National Statistics estimates that 4.1 million people had Covid-19 in the week ending April 2.

There was also one more coronavirus death recorded in the latest 24-hour period in Belfast.

The dashboard shows 615 people had died in the area by April 8 (Friday) – up from 614 on Thursday.

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

They were among 3,358 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 Belfast.

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