Coronavirus in Berkshire round up - Tuesday, February 16

Public Health England has recorded 128 lab-confirmed cases in areas including Reading, Bracknell, Wokingham, West Berkshire, Slough and Windsor and Maidenhead.

These figures, correct as of Tuesday, February 16 at 4pm, bring the county's lab-confirmed positive Covid-19 tests total to 52,435, according to Public Health England.

READ MORE: Which areas in Reading have recorded the fewest Covid-19 deaths?

RBH

The local breakdown for the past 24 hours as follows:

Reading - 22 cases, 10,265 total

West Berkshire - 15 cases, 5,865 total

Bracknell - 8 cases, 6,651 total

Wokingham - 17 cases, 7,682 total

Slough - 54 cases, 14,143 total

Windsor and Maidenhead - 12 cases, 7,829 total

There have now been 4,058,468 people across the UK who have tested positive for Covid-19.

The total number of deaths - those with Covid-19 listed on their death certificate - across the UK has now reached 129,498.

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

Reading - 127.3

West Berkshire - 107.9

Bracknell - 110.2

Wokingham - 84.2

Slough - 209.3

Windsor and Maidenhead - 102.4

READ MORE: The FIVE Reading areas with fewer than 10 recent Covid cases

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In today's national cooronavirus news:

Almost two million more people are to be told to shield to protect themselves from serious side-effects from Covid-19, officials have said.

A new tool has identified those who are at high risk of severe disease or death.

As a result, 1.7 million additional people in England will be sent letters asking them to shield.

Around 2.2 million people are currently on the list in England, which will expand to almost four million when the additional people are included.

More than 800,000 of these are aged 19 to 69 and will be prioritised for the vaccination programme, the Department of Health and Social Care confirmed.

It comes as new evidence suggests that the Covid-19 vaccination programme is working as increasing numbers of people are showing protective antibodies in their blood.

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Antibodies - disease fighting proteins made by the body's immune system - are present in a person's blood when they have built up some level of immunity through a previous infection or have received a vaccine.

New Office for National Statistics (ONS) data show an increasing proportion of people across the UK have antibodies in their blood.

An estimated one in five adults in England have antibodies, compared with one in seven in Wales and Northern Ireland, and an estimated one in nine in Scotland.

Antibodies can take a couple of weeks after vaccination to show up.

So those vaccinated first - including those over the age of 80 - will be among the first to show antibodies through blood tests.

In England, 40.9 per cent of people aged 80 and over tested positive for antibodies. In Wales the figure was 12.7 per cent and in Scotland 11.6 per cent.