158 further coronavirus cases in South Kesteven

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 South Kesteven increased by 158 in the last 24 hours, official figures show.

A total of 38,258 cases had been confirmed in South Kesteven when the UK coronavirus daily dashboard was updated on March 8 (Tuesday), up from 38,100 on Monday.

The cumulative rate of infection in South Kesteven, which covers the whole pandemic, stands at 26,712 cases per 100,000 people, far lower than the England average of 28,863.

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 61,713 over the period, to 19,307,014.

There were no new coronavirus deaths recorded in the latest 24-hour period in South Kesteven.

The dashboard shows 326 people had died in the area by March 8 (Tuesday) – which was unchanged from Monday.

It means there have been two deaths in the past week, which is an increase on one the previous week.

They were among 12,913 deaths recorded across the East Midlands.

The figures include anyone who died within 28 days of a positive test result for Covid-19, and whose usual residence was in South Kesteven.

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.

The figures also show that three-quarters of people in South Kesteven have received a booster dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.

The latest figures show 94,384 people had received a booster or third dose by March 7 (Monday) – 73% of those aged 12 and over, based on the number of people on the National Immunisation Management Service database.

A total of 111,722 people (86%) had received two jabs by that date.

Across England, 66% of people aged 12 and above had received a booster.

Unlike at local level, the national rate was calculated using mid-2020 population estimates from the Office for National Statistics.