907 further coronavirus cases and two more deaths recorded in North Lanarkshire

A Coronavirus testing centre in Dalston, east London. There were a further 6,042 lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK as of 9am on Saturday, taking the overall number to 429,277. A further 34 deaths were recorded.

The number of coronavirus cases in North Lanarkshire increased by 907 over the last four days, official figures show – and two more deaths were recorded.

A total of 128,315 cases had been confirmed in North Lanarkshire when the UK coronavirus daily dashboard was updated on March 24 (Thursday), up from 127,408 on Friday.

The cumulative rate of infection in North Lanarkshire, which covers the whole pandemic, stands at 37,614 cases per 100,000 people, far higher than the Scotland average of 31,667.

In England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, if one person tests positive for the virus more than 90 days after the first infection, two infection episodes will be recorded, according to the UK Health Security Agency.

Across the UK, the number of recorded cases increased by 97,819 over the last 24 hours, to 20,613,817.

There were also two more coronavirus deaths recorded in the latest 24-hour period in North Lanarkshire.

The dashboard shows 953 people had died in the area by March 24 (Thursday) – up from 951 on Wednesday.

It means there have been 17 deaths in the past week, which is an increase on 10 the previous week.

They were among 11,246 deaths recorded across Scotland.

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

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

On March 24, six deaths were removed from the Scottish figures after a change in test details meant they were no longer classed as deaths within four weeks of a positive test.

The figures also show that more than two-thirds of people in North Lanarkshire have received a booster dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.

The latest figures show 207,016 people had received a booster or third dose by March 23 (Wednesday) – 70% of those aged 12 and over, based on mid-2020 population estimates from the Office for National Statistics.

A total of 252,566 people (86%) had received two jabs by that date.

Across Scotland, 73% of people aged 12 and above had received a booster.

People who have died or left the country are no longer included in vaccine uptake totals reported by Public Health Scotland as of March 24.