398 further coronavirus cases 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 398 in the last 24 hours, official figures show.

A total of 59,372 people had been confirmed as testing positive for Covid-19 in Belfast when the UK coronavirus daily dashboard was updated on December 2 (Thursday), up from 58,974 on Wednesday.

The rate of infection in Belfast now stands at 17,332 cases per 100,000 people, higher than the Northern Ireland average of 17,051.

Across the UK, the number of recorded cases increased by 53,067 over the period, to 10,329,074.

However, there were no new coronavirus deaths recorded in the latest 24-hour period in Belfast.

The dashboard shows 530 people had died in the area by December 2 (Thursday) – which was unchanged from Wednesday.

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

They were among 2,881 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, so some areas might see their figures revised down.