THURROCK continues to have a higher percentage of residents who have contracted Covid-19 than the national average and, despite the fact that more than 72,000 people in the borough have had their first vaccination, there has been a recent small rise in the number of cases recorded.

Overall 17,847 cases of Covid-19 have now been confirmed in Thurrock, which includes 36 cases in the last recorded full week which was between 6 and 12 April, a rise of eight on the previous week. The rate of infection in Thurrock now stands at 10,231 cases per 100,000 people, far higher than the England average of 6,791.

There have been 477 Covid-related deaths in Thurrock up to 2 April.

By 11 April 72, 864 people in the borough had received their first dose of the vaccine.

The average number of new daily cases in the UK has fallen substantially since the start of the year, but the rate of decline has slowed in recent weeks.

Last week, the government changed the way cases in England are reported. Cases that were identified using a lateral flow test have been removed if the person subsequently took a PCR test and tested negative within three days. This means 8,010 cases have been removed from the case data causing the overall total to fall.

Nationally there have been 127,225 Covid-related deaths and in total 4,388,732 cases recorded across the UK.