Covid cases in Swindon have risen by almost 1,000 over the weekend.

Official figures show 983 more infections have been recorded, making a total of 48,017. This is up from the 47,034 total we had on Friday.

The rate of infection in Swindon now stands at 21,544 cases per 100,000 people, lower than the England average of 22,953.

Across the UK, the number of recorded cases increased by 239,015 over the period, to 15,305,410.

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 over the weekend in Swindon.

The dashboard shows 334 people had died in the area by January 17 (Monday) – which was unchanged from Friday.

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

They were among 8,490 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.

Figures reported on a Monday are likely to be lower as a result of a lag in reporting deaths over the weekend.

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

The latest figures show 164,637 people had received both jabs by January 16 (Sunday) – 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.