TWO more cases of coronavirus have been recorded in Winchester in the last 24 hours, after two days of no reports.

Whilst the increase in cases in Hampshire has been accelerating in recent weeks the figure for the Winchester City Council district is 542, up just three since Monday, with an infection rate of 434.1 people in every 100,000.

Some 28 new cases have been reported in Hampshire in the last 24 hours.

There have been no new deaths from Covid-19 in the last 24 hours in the county, including Southampton and Portsmouth.

In the Hampshire County Council area today the number of new infections has increased to 5,862 lab-confirmed cases of the virus, up from 5,834 yesterday, Thursday.

Nationally, 34 deaths have been reported in the UK, excluding Scotland after a power cut hit its National Records office, bringing the total number of confirmed reported deaths to 41,936, according to the ONS website.

The rate of infection in Hampshire stands at 424.0 cases per 100,000 people, far lower than the England average, shown this afternoon as 647.2. The Winchester rate is 434.1, higher than the county but much lower than nationally.

Today there have now been 423,236 cases of the virus across the UK. This is an increase of 6,874 in the last 24 hours, the biggest rise since the first spike in March/April.

The number of deaths in Hampshire hospitals remains at 612. The figure for fatal cases at the Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which includes the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester, is 162. For the other local county trusts, Portsmouth Hospital NHS Trust, 232; Solent NHS Trust, 2; Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust, 17; University Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, 199.

The R number in the south-east is between 1.1 and 1.3 meaning that on average every 10 people infected will infect between 11 and 13 other people. This is slight reduction on previous days when it was up to 1.4, or 14 other people.

The growth rate in the south east region is between +1% and +5%, meaning the number of new infections is growing by up to 5% every day. This is down on the +3%-+7%. indicating the increase is beginning to slow down.

Some 24 patients, up nine, were reported on Wednesday to have admitted to hospital with coronavirus in the south-east region that includes Hampshire. There are 106 with the condition in hospital today (Friday), up seven, with four on ventilators today, down one, according to the ONS.

Total number of deaths since the start of the pandemic of people who had had a positive test result for Covid-19 and died within 28 days of the first positive test, the figures are Hampshire, 725, Portsmouth, 78 and Southampton, 123.

Other coronavirus news:

REVAMPED plans for the Winchester Cathedral Christmas Market have been approved although it is uncertain whether it will go ahead because of coronavirus.

Planners have approved 112 chalets spread over a much wider area and without the ice rink in the Inner Close.

As a one-off, the chalets, the same number as since 2017, will be located in the Inner Close and also over much of the Outer Close, including the Paddock by the Old Minster, to allow for social distancing between November 19 and December 22.

Read more on this story here

FEWER than four in five close contacts of people with coronavirus in Hampshire are being reached through the test and trace regime, new figures suggest.

The Government has faced mounting pressure over failings in the NHS Test and Trace system, which has recently seen up to four times the number of people trying to book a test as the number of tests available.

Read more here