396 further coronavirus cases and two more deaths recorded in Lisburn and Castlereagh

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 Lisburn and Castlereagh increased by 396 over the weekend, official figures show – and two more deaths were recorded.

A total of 22,745 people had been confirmed as testing positive for Covid-19 in Lisburn and Castlereagh when the UK coronavirus daily dashboard was updated on December 6 (Monday), up from 22,349 on Friday.

The rate of infection in Lisburn and Castlereagh now stands at 15,531 cases per 100,000 people, lower 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 Lisburn and Castlereagh.

The dashboard shows 208 people had died in the area by December 6 (Monday) – up from 206 on Friday.

It means there have been three deaths in the past week, which is an increase on none 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 Lisburn and Castlereagh.

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.