The number of coronavirus cases in Thurrock increased by 73 in the last 24 hours, official figures show.

A total of 20,199 people had been confirmed as testing positive for Covid-19 in Thurrock when the UK coronavirus daily dashboard was updated on Wednesday, up from 20,126 on Tuesday.

The rate of infection in Thurrock now stands at 11,586 cases per 100,000 people, far higher than the England average of 8,950.

Across the UK, the number of recorded cases increased by 25,402 over the period, to 5,770,928.

However, there were no new coronavirus deaths recorded in the latest 24-hour period in Thurrock.

The dashboard shows 438 people had died in the area by Wednesday – which was unchanged from Tuesday.

It means there has been one death in the past week, which is an increase on none the previous week.

They were among 13,491 deaths recorded across the East of England.

The figures include anyone who died within 28 days of a positive test result for Covid-19, and whose usual residence was in Thurrock.

Daily death counts are revised each day, with each case backdated to the actual date of death, so some areas might see their figures revised down.

The figures also show that more than half of people in Thurrock have received two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine.

The latest figures show 80,235 people had received both jabs by Tuesday – 58 per cent of those aged 18 and over, based on the number of people on the National Immunisation Management Service database.

Across England, 71 per cent of people aged 18 and above had received a second dose of the jab.

Unlike at local level, the national rate was calculated using mid-2020 population estimates from the Office for National Statistics.