THE number of coronavirus cases in Shropshire increased by 668 in the last 24 hours, official figures show – and one more death was recorded.

A total of 87,914 cases had been confirmed in Shropshire when the UK coronavirus daily dashboard was updated on Wednesday, March 23, up from 87,246 on Tuesday.

The cumulative rate of infection in Shropshire, which covers the whole pandemic, stands at 27,016 cases per 100,000 people, far lower than the England average of 30,552.

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 102,267 over the last 24 hours, to 20,515,998.

This figure includes cases not reported by Public Health Scotland yesterday because of a technical issue.

There was also one more coronavirus death recorded in the latest 24-hour period in Shropshire.

The dashboard shows 741 people had died in the area by Wednesday – up from 740 on Tuesday.

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

They were among 17,004 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 nearly three-quarters of people in Shropshire have received a booster dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.

The latest figures show 212,633 people had received a booster or third dose by March 22 (Tuesday) – 72 per cent of those aged 12 and over, based on the number of people on the National Immunisation Management Service database.

A total of 252,646 people (86 per cent) had received two jabs by that date.

Across England, 67 per cent of people aged 12 and above had received a booster.

Unlike at local level, the national rate was calculated using mid-2020 population estimates from the Office for National Statistics.