602 further coronavirus cases Newham

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 Newham increased by 602 in the last 24 hours, official figures show.

A total of 93,942 cases had been confirmed in Newham when the UK coronavirus daily dashboard was updated on February 1 (Tuesday), up from 93,340 on Monday.

The rate of infection in Newham now stands at 26,443 cases per 100,000 people, higher than the England average of 26,435.

Since January 31, the UK Health Security Agency has changed the way it reports coronavirus cases.

It means if one person tests positive for the virus more than 90 days after the first infection, two infection episodes will be recorded.

Across the UK, the number of recorded cases increased by 112,452 over the period, to 17,428,345.

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 currently only include LFT results for England and Northern Ireland, with lateral flow testing data for Scotland due to be added in the coming weeks.

There was also one more coronavirus death recorded in the latest 24-hour period in Newham – following a change to how the UKHSA reports deaths.

As of today (February 1), deaths are also being recorded using the new episode-based case definition in England, to include those following possible reinfections.

This means a person is included in the total if they die within 28 days of any positive test – instead of their first ever positive test result.

The UKHSA said this means there could be a significant increase in the number of deaths reported in the most recent update.

The dashboard shows 741 people had died in the area by February 1 (Tuesday) – up from 740 on Monday.

They were among 18,614 deaths recorded across London.

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

The figures also show that more than half of people in Newham have received two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine.

The latest figures show 213,886 people had received both jabs by January 31 (Monday) – 56% of those aged 12 and over, based on the number of people on the National Immunisation Management Service database.

Across England, 84% of people aged 12 and above had received a second dose of the jab.

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