Eight more Covid deaths reported today in Milton Keynes despite infection rate stabilising

This follows 11 deaths recorded yesterday (Tuesday) and bring the city's sad toll to 348 people who have died within 28 days of having a positive test result since the start of the pandemic.

It follows the national spike of 1,820 deaths today - the highest daily total throughout the Covid crisis.

However, the infection rate in MK continues to improve. Today there have been 184 positive tests and the case rate has dropped to 591.6 per 100,000 people. This is still higher than the average rate for the whole of England, which currently stands at 497.3.

Nationally there were 38,905 positive tests over the past 24 hours. However a total of 4,609,740 people have had the first dose of the Covid vaccine and 460,625 have also received the second dose.

In Milton Keynes, the seven vaccination hubs are each carrying out hundreds of jabs a day and there is now a centre to cover every GP surgery in the city. See Citizen story here.

15,887 people in MK have now officially tested positive for the virus since the pandemic began.