THERE has been six Covid-19 deaths in Northumberland in the past week.

A total of 33,228 people had been confirmed as testing positive for Covid-19 in Northumberland when the UK coronavirus daily dashboard was updated yesterday (September 15), up from 33,109 on Tuesday.

The rate of infection in Northumberland now stands at 10,261 cases per 100,000 people, lower than the England average of 11,068.

Across the UK, the number of recorded cases increased by 29,873 over the period, to 7,312,683.

There were also three more coronavirus deaths recorded in the latest 24-hour period in Northumberland.

The dashboard shows 734 people had died in the area by September 15 – up from 731 on Tuesday.

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

They were among 6,429 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 Northumberland.

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

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

The latest figures show 236,853 people had received both jabs by September 14 (Tuesday) – 84 per cent of those aged 16 and over, based on the number of people on the National Immunisation Management Service database.

Across England, 81 per cent of people aged 16 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.