THE number of coronavirus cases in Shropshire increased by 228 in the 24 hours up to Wednesday, official figures show.

A total of 27,149 people had been confirmed as testing positive for Covid-19 in Shropshire when the UK coronavirus daily dashboard was updated on Wednesday up from 26,921 on Tuesday.

The rate of infection in Shropshire now stands at 8,343 cases per 100,000 people, far lower than the England average of 11,362.

Across the UK, the number of recorded cases increased by 33,560 over the period, to 7,530,103.

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

The dashboard shows 593 people had died in the area by September 22 – which was unchanged from Tuesday.

It means there have been four deaths in the past week, which is the same as the previous week.

They were among 14,307 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, so some areas might see their figures revised down.

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 233,697 people had received both jabs by September 21 – 83 per cent of those aged 16 and over, based on the number of people on the National Immunisation Management Service database.

Across England, 82 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.