144 further coronavirus cases in Mid and East Antrim

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 Mid and East Antrim increased by 144 in the last 24 hours, official figures show.

A total of 21,179 people had been confirmed as testing positive for Covid-19 in Mid and East Antrim when the UK coronavirus daily dashboard was updated on December 2 (Thursday), up from 21,035 on Wednesday.

The rate of infection in Mid and East Antrim now stands at 15,188 cases per 100,000 people, lower 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 Mid and East Antrim.

The dashboard shows 260 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 an increase on two 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 Mid and East Antrim.

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.