THE number of coronavirus cases in Bury increased by 68 in the last 24 hours, official figures show.

A total of 23,606 people had been confirmed as testing positive for Covid-19 in Bury when the UK coronavirus daily dashboard was updated on July 28 (Wednesday), up from 23,538 on Tuesday.

The rate of infection in Bury now stands at 12,360 cases per 100,000 people, far higher than the England average of 8,950.

Across the UK, the number of recorded cases increased by 25,402 over the period, to 5,770,928.

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

The dashboard shows 552 people had died in the area by July 28 (Wednesday) – which was unchanged from Tuesday.

It means there have been no deaths in the past week, which is a decrease on two the previous week.

They were among 18,365 deaths recorded across the North West.

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

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 two-thirds of people in Bury have received two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine.

The latest figures show 105,790 people had received both jabs by July 27 (Tuesday) – 66 per cent of those aged 18 and over, based on the number of people on the National Immunisation Management Service database.

Across England, 71 per cent of people aged 18 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.