THE number of coronavirus cases in Shropshire increased by 488 in the last 24 hours, official figures show – and four more deaths were recorded.

A total of 91,623 cases had been confirmed in Shropshire when the UK coronavirus daily dashboard was updated on Thursday, March 31, up from 91,135 on Wednesday.

The cumulative rate of infection in Shropshire, which covers the whole pandemic, stands at 28,156 cases per 100,000 people, far lower than the England average of 31,485.

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 74,416 over the period, to 21,147,425.

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

The dashboard shows 752 people had died in the area by Thursday, March 31 – up from 748 on Wednesday.

It means there have been 10 deaths in the past week, which is an increase on five the previous week.

They were among 17,106 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 213,135 people had received a booster or third dose by March 30 (Wednesday) – 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 252,997 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.