537 further coronavirus cases in Derry City and Strabane

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 Derry City and Strabane increased by 537 over the weekend, official figures show.

A total of 46,877 people had been confirmed as testing positive for Covid-19 in Derry City and Strabane when the UK coronavirus daily dashboard was updated on January 17 (Monday), up from 46,340 on Friday.

The rate of infection in Derry City and Strabane now stands at 31,022 cases per 100,000 people, far higher than the Northern Ireland average of 25,514.

Across the UK, the number of recorded cases increased by 239,015 over the period, to 15,305,410.

People with a positive lateral flow test no longer need to take a follow-up PCR test to confirm the result unless they have coronavirus symptoms.

UK case numbers currently only include LFT results for England and Northern Ireland, with lateral flow testing data for Scotland due to be added in the coming weeks.

However, there were no new coronavirus deaths recorded over the weekend in Derry City and Strabane.

The dashboard shows 194 people had died in the area by January 17 (Monday) – which was unchanged from Friday.

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

They were among 3,042 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 Derry City and Strabane.

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.

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