THE number of coronavirus cases in Swindon increased by 124 in the last 24 hours, official figures show.

A total of 33,384 people had been confirmed as testing positive for Covid-19 in Swindon when the UK coronavirus daily dashboard was updated on December 9, up from 33,260 on Wednesday.

The rate of infection in Swindon now stands at 14,978 cases per 100,000 people, lower than the England average of 15,991.

Across the UK, the number of recorded cases increased by 50,023 over the period, to 10,660,981.

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

The dashboard shows 320 people had died in the area by December 9 – which was unchanged from Wednesday.

It means there have been no deaths in the past week, which is the same as the previous week.

They were among 8,077 deaths recorded across the south west.

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

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 Swindon have received two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine.

The latest figures show 160,176 people had received both jabs by December 8 (Wednesday) – 77 per cent of those aged 12 and over, based on the number of people on the National Immunisation Management Service database.

Across England, 81 per cent of people aged 12 and above had received a second dose of the jab.