281 further coronavirus cases in Newry, Mourne and Down

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 Newry, Mourne and Down increased by 281 over the weekend, official figures show.

A total of 65,724 cases had been confirmed in Newry, Mourne and Down when the UK coronavirus daily dashboard was updated on March 28 (Monday), up from 65,443 on Friday.

The cumulative rate of infection in Newry, Mourne and Down, which covers the whole pandemic, stands at 36,178 cases per 100,000 people, higher than the Northern Ireland average of 35,992.

In England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, 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 214,392 over the period, to 20,905,515.

There were no new coronavirus deaths recorded over the weekend in Newry, Mourne and Down.

The dashboard shows 254 people had died in the area by March 28 (Monday) – which was unchanged from Friday.

It means there has been one death in the past week, which is a decrease on two the previous week.

They were among 3,306 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 Newry, Mourne and Down.

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.