THE number of coronavirus cases in County Durham increased by 213 in 24 hours, official figures show.

A total of 57,516 people had been confirmed as testing positive for Covid-19 in County Durham when the UK coronavirus daily dashboard was updated on July 30, up from 57,303 on Thursday.

The rate of infection in County Durham now stands at 10,850 cases per 100,000 people, higher than the England average of 9,044.

Across the UK, the number of recorded cases increased by 29,213 over the period, to 5,830,774.

However, there were no new coronavirus deaths recorded in the latest 24-hour period in County Durham.

The dashboard shows 1,283 people had died in the area by July 30 (Friday) – which was unchanged from Thursday.

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

They were among 6,109 deaths recorded across the North East.

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

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 more than two-thirds of people in County Durham have received two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine.

The latest figures show 313,169 people had received both jabs by July 29 (Thursday) – 70% of those aged 18 and over, based on the number of people on the National Immunisation Management Service database.

Across England, 71% of people aged 18 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.

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