A FURTHER 436 positive Covid-19 cases have been reported in Berkshire in the past 24 hours.

Public Health England has recorded these lab-confirmed cases in the past day in areas including Reading, Bracknell, Wokingham, West Berkshire, Slough and Windsor and Maidenhead.

These figures, correct as Monday, December 21, bring the county's lab-confirmed positive Covid-19 tests total to 20,812, according to Public Health England.

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The local breakdown for the past 24 hours as follows:

  • Bracknell - 67 cases, 2,402 total
  • Wokingham - 75 cases, 3,216 total
  • West Berkshire - 60 cases, 2,459 total
  • Slough - 93 cases, 5,549 total
  • Windsor and Maidenhead - 54 cases, 3,211 total
  • Reading - 87 cases, 3,975 total

The latest seven-day rate per 100,000 people locally are as follows:

  • Bracknell - 359.9
  • Wokingham - 278.8
  • West Berkshire - 265.1
  • Slough - 514.2
  • Windsor and Maidenhead - 238.4
  • Reading - 372.7

There have now been 2, 073,511 cases of Covid-19 across the UK – as of Monday, December 21, at 4pm. This was an increase of 33, 364 cases in the past 24 hours.

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In today's national coronavirus news:

More than half-a-million people in the UK have been vaccinated against Covid-19, Boris Johnson said, as he moved to soothe concerns the country risked being effectively cut off from parts of Europe and beyond following the discovery of a new strain of coronavirus.

The Prime Minister said the Government took "prompt and decisive" action when the mutant variant was discovered in the UK on Friday, resulting in the creation of strict Tier 4 restrictions that have taken a scythe to Christmas plans for millions.

He said more than half-a-million people in the UK have now received their first dose of the two-part vaccinate since British grandmother Margaret Keenan became the first patient in the world on December 8 to receive the Pfizer Covid-19 jab following its clinical approval.

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It came as the Government's New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats advisory group (NervTag) told a Science Media Centre briefing on the new mutant variant that cases outside of Tier 4 in London and the south east of England "are increasing at similar rates" those in affected areas, and that it had a "transmission advantage" over other strains of the virus.

However, World Health Organisation director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said there was "no evidence" the new strain was "more likely to cause severe disease or mortality".