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 45,249 cases had been confirmed in Mid and East Antrim when the UK coronavirus daily dashboard was updated on March 25 (Friday), up from 45,105 on Thursday.

The cumulativerate of infection in Mid and East Antrim, which covers the whole pandemic, stands at 32,450 cases per 100,000 people, far lower than the Northern Ireland average of 35,790.

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.

Across the UK, the number of recorded cases increased by 77,306 over the period, to 20,691,123.

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 now include LFT results for England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

There were no new coronavirus deaths recorded in the latest 24-hour period in Mid and East Antrim.

The dashboard shows 286 people had died in the area by March 25 (Friday) – which was unchanged from Thursday.

It means there have been no deaths in the past week, which is a decrease on two the previous week.

They were among 3,292 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.