236 further coronavirus cases and one more death recorded in Merton

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 Merton increased by 236 over the weekend, official figures show – and one more death was recorded.

A total of 62,842 cases had been confirmed in Merton when the UK coronavirus daily dashboard was updated on February 28 (Monday), up from 62,606 on Friday.

The cumulativerate of infection in Merton, which covers the whole pandemic, stands at 30,439 cases per 100,000 people, far higher than the England average of 28,398.

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 81,936 over the period, to 18,886,701.

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 was also one more coronavirus death recorded over the weekend in Merton.

The dashboard shows 473 people had died in the area by February 28 (Monday) – up from 472 on Friday.

It means there has been one death in the past week, which is the same as the previous week.

They were among 18,962 deaths recorded across London.

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

Daily death counts are revised each day, with each case backdated to the actual date of death.

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

The figures also show that half of people in Merton have received a booster dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.

The latest figures show 110,103 people had received a booster or third dose by February 27 (Sunday) – 50% of those aged 12 and over, based on the number of people on the National Immunisation Management Service database.

A total of 149,333 people (67%) 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.