THE number of coronavirus cases in Shropshire increased by 2,716 in the last six days, official figures show – and one more death was recorded.

A total of 50,432 people had been confirmed as testing positive for Covid-19 in Shropshire when the UK coronavirus daily dashboard was updated on Wednesday, December 29, up from 47,716 on Thursday.

The rate of infection in Shropshire now stands at 15,498 cases per 100,000 people, far lower than the England average of 18,891.

Across the UK, the number of recorded cases increased by 790,005 over the period, to 12,559,926.

There was also one more coronavirus death recorded in the latest six-day period in Shropshire.

The dashboard shows 648 people had died in the area by December 29 (Wednesday) – up from 647 on Thursday.

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

They were among 15,435 deaths recorded across the West Midlands.

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

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

The latest figures show 244,522 people had received both jabs by December 28 (Tuesday) – 83 per cent of those aged 12 and over, based on the number of people on the National Immunisation Management Service database.

Across England, 82 per cent 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.