The number of recorded coronavirus cases in Thurrock increased by 525 over the weekend, official figures show.

Public Health England figures show that 15,274 people had been confirmed as testing positive for Covid-19 by 9am on Monday (January 18) in Thurrock, up from 14,749 the same time on Friday.

The health body is now including Pillar 2 tests – those carried out by commercial partners – alongside Pillar 1 tests, which are analysed in NHS or PHE laboratories and which made up the first stage of the Government's mass testing programme.

The rate of infection in Thurrock now stands at 8,761 cases per 100,000 people, far higher than the England average of 5,255.

Across the UK, the number of recorded cases increased by 79,940 over the period, to 3,395,959.

Thurrock's cases were among the 300,599 recorded across the East of England, a figure which rose by 12,518 over the period.

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Cumulative case counts include patients who are currently unwell, have recovered and those that have died.

Meanwhile, the number of hospital admissions of people with Covid-19 in England was 3,569 on January 16, according to the latest figures from NHS England.

This is down from a record 4,134 Covid-19 hospital admissions reported for January 12 and down 4% on the equivalent figure a week ago on January 9.

During the first wave of the virus, admissions peaked at 3,099 on April 1 2020.

Five of the seven regions in England have recorded a week-on-week drop in daily admissions with London (down 9%), south-east England (down 25%), eastern England (down 10%), the South West (down 11%) and North East (down 2%).

The Midlands recorded the highest week-on-week increase of 18% from 638 on January 9 to 753 on January 16 while the North East and Yorkshire saw a rise of 14%.

The figures cover all patients admitted in the previous 24 hours who were known to have Covid-19, plus any patients diagnosed in hospital with Covid-19 in the previous 24 hours.