THE number of coronavirus cases in Shropshire increased by 180 in the last 24 hours, official figures show – and three more deaths were recorded.

A total of 24,655 people had been confirmed as testing positive for Covid-19 in Shropshire when the UK coronavirus daily dashboard was updated on Tuesday, September 7, up from 24,475 on Monday.

The rate of infection in Shropshire now stands at 7,577 cases per 100,000 people, far higher than the England average of 10,741.

Across the UK, the number of recorded cases increased by 37,179 over the period, to 7,056,106.

There were also three more coronavirus deaths recorded in the latest 24-hour period in Shropshire.

The dashboard shows 585 people had died in the area by September 7 – up from 582 on Monday.

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

They were among 14,099 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 four in five people in Shropshire have received two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine.

The latest figures show 228,615 people had received both jabs by September 6 (Monday) – 81 per cent of those aged 16 and over, based on the number of people on the National Immunisation Management Service database.

Across England, 80 per cent of people aged 16 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.