THE number of coronavirus cases in Dudley increased by 618 over the weekend, official figures show – and one more death was recorded.

A total of 53,111 people had been confirmed as testing positive for Covid-19 in Dudley when the UK coronavirus daily dashboard was updated on Monday November 22, up from 52,493 on Friday.

The rate of infection in Dudley now stands at 16,476 cases per 100,000 people, higher than the England average of 14,828.

Across the UK, the number of recorded cases increased by 123,773 over the period, to 9,889,926.

There was also one more coronavirus death recorded over the weekend in Dudley.

The dashboard shows 857 people had died in the area by Monday November 22 – up from 856 on Friday.

It means there have been eight deaths in the past week - an increase on seven the previous week.

They were among 15,045 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 Dudley.

The figures also show three-quarters of people in Dudley have received two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine.

Latest figures show 216,577 people had received both jabs by Sunday November 21 – 76 per cent of those aged 12 and over, based on the number of people on the National Immunisation Management Service database.

Across England, 80 per cent of people aged 12 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.