Covid infections continue to rise in Swindon

A total of 46,654 people had been confirmed as testing positive for Covid-19 in Swindon when the UK coronavirus daily dashboard was updated on January 13 (Thursday), up from 46,210 on Wednesday.

The rate of infection in Swindon now stands at 20,932 cases per 100,000 people, lower than the England average of 22,423.

Across the UK, the number of recorded cases increased by 105,679 over the period, to 14,967,817.

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.

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

The dashboard shows 332 people had died in the area by January 13 (Thursday) – which was unchanged from Wednesday.

It means there have been four deaths in the past week, which is the same as the previous week.

They were among 8,458 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 four in five people in Swindon have received two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine.

The latest figures show 164,239 people had received both jabs by January 12 (Wednesday) – 79% of those aged 12 and over, based on the number of people on the National Immunisation Management Service database.

Across England, 83% 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.