THE number of new cases of coronavirus reported in the Winchester district in the last 24 hours continues to edge upwards.

Today’s figure for the Winchester City Council district is 552, up four, with an infection rate of 442.1 people in every 100,000. Twelve cases have been reported in the last seven days.

Across Hampshire 44 new cases have been reported yesterday.

There have been no new deaths, since the one in Portsmouth reported over the weekend.

In the Hampshire County Council area today the number of new infections has increased to 5,985 lab-confirmed cases of the virus, up from 5,941 on Monday.

Nationally in the last 24 hours 71 deaths have been reported in the UK, the highest number since last month, bringing the total number of confirmed reported deaths to 42,072, according to the ONS website.

The rate of infection in Hampshire stands at 432.9 cases per 100,000 people, far lower than the England average, shown this afternoon as 679.9. The Winchester rate is 442.1, higher than the county but much lower than nationally.

Today there have now been 446,156 cases of the virus across the UK. This is an increase of 7,143 in the last 24 hours.

The number of deaths in Hampshire hospitals is now 613. 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, 233; 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.

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 slowing down.

Six patients, down eight, were reported on Sunday to have admitted to hospital with coronavirus in the south-east region that includes Hampshire. There are 98 with the condition in hospital today (Tuesday), down 14, 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. The Winchester district figure, the city council area, is 77, a rate of 61.7 per 100,000 people.