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UK Covid cases drop below 10k for the first time since October 2nd

The UK has recorded the lowest daily death toll this year and the lowest number of new infections since October 2nd.

A total of 230 deaths were recorded with 9,765 new cases in the 24 hours to Monday, official figures showed.

Last Monday, the national death toll rose by 333 and 14,101 new infections were recorded.

On Monday February 1, 409 people died from Covid-19 and 18,607 tested positive for the virus, compared to 592 deaths and 22,195 cases the week before that.

Monday death tolls have typically been lower throughout the pandemic due to weekend reporting lags.

Today’s figures also showed more than 15.3million have received a dose of a coronavirus vaccine.

Falling cases

Earlier today it was revealed that coronavirus case rates have fallen across nearly 95 per cent of local authorities in the UK.

Of the 380 local authorities areas across the UK, only 23 (6 per cent) have seen a week-on-week increase in case rates compared with 354 (93 per cent) where the rates have fallen.

The highest case rate in the UK was in Corby, Northamptonshire, with 277 new cases recorded in the seven days to February 10 – the equivalent of 383.6 cases per 100,000 people.

This was down from 468.0 cases per 100,000 people in the seven days to February 3.

The figures, for the seven days to February 10, are based on tests carried out in laboratories (pillar one of the Government’s testing programme) and in the wider community (pillar two).

The rate is expressed as the number of new cases per 100,000 people.

Data for the most recent four days (February 11-14) has been excluded as it is incomplete and does not reflect the true number of cases.

All the figures have been calculated by the PA news agency based on Public Health England data published on February 14 on the Government’s coronavirus dashboard.

England

Of the 315 local areas in England, 12 (4 per cent) have seen a rise in case rates, 301 (95 per cent) have seen a fall, and two are unchanged.

The highest week-on-week increase in England was in Copeland, Cumbria, where the rate has risen from 177.5 to 237.6, with 162 new cases.

Calderdale in West Yorkshire had the second highest rise, up from 164.1 to 207.1, with 438 new cases.

Newark and Sherwood in Nottinghamshire had the third highest, up from 213.2 to 248.3, with 304 new cases.

Scotland

Of the 32 local areas in Scotland, eight (25 per cent) have seen a week-on-week rise in case rates, while 24 (75 per cent) have seen a fall.

East Ayrshire had the highest rate in the country, up from 154.9 to 252.4, with 308 new cases.

This was followed by Clackmannanshire, which was up from 163.0 to 221.2, with 114 new cases.

Stirling had the third highest rise, up from 130.6 to 159.2, with 150 new cases.

Wales

Of the 22 local areas in Wales, three (14 per cent) have seen a rise in case rates, 18 (82 per cent) a fall, and one has remained the same.

Wrexham had the highest rate in Wales, down from 229.5 to 161.1, with 219 new cases.

The three areas recording a week-on-week rise were:

– Powys (up from 84.6 to 120.1, with 159 new cases)
– Conwy (up from 110.9 to 113.5, with 133 new cases)
– Cardiff (up from 100.0 to 100.6, with 369 new cases)

Northern Ireland

All of the 11 local areas in Northern Ireland have seen a drop in case rates.

The highest rate was in Mid Ulster, which was down from 301.6 in the week to February 3 to 234.3 in the seven days to February 10, with 348 new cases.

The biggest drops was in Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon, where the rate fell from 283.1 to 207.2, with 448 new cases.

Related: Tory MP ruthlessly mocks ‘Boris burrow’ plans connecting Scotland and N Ireland

Jack Peat

Jack is a business and economics journalist and the founder of The London Economic (TLE). He has contributed articles to VICE, Huffington Post and Independent and is a published author. Jack read History at the University of Wales, Bangor and has a Masters in Journalism from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

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