Coronavirus in the UK: How many confirmed cases are there in your area?
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There have been more than 340,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus so far in the UK and more than 40,000 people have died, government figures show.
However, these figures include only people who have died within 28 days of testing positive for coronavirus and other measures suggest the number of deaths is higher.
Find out how the pandemic has affected your area and how it compares with the national average:
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The postcode search has been updated to replace data for health boards in Scotland with data for local councils. In England, data for county councils has been replaced with data for district councils. Figures for boroughs and unitary authorities remain unchanged.
Rise in new cases amid concern over hotspots
Daily confirmed cases began edging up again in July - after falling significantly from their April peak - as lockdown restrictions imposed in March were eased.
On Thursday, the government said there had been 1,735 newly-confirmed cases.
The official number of confirmed cases during the peak in the UK underestimated the true level of infection at the time, as widespread testing was not as available until mid-May.
The increase in testing partly explains the rise in daily cases in July - if you are testing more, you are likely to find more cases. But the number of tests being processed each day has plateaued since the beginning of August, according to government data.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS), which surveys a sample of households in England for current infections, estimates that 1 in 1,900 people in England had coronavirus in the week ending 20 August. The figure for the previous week was 1 in 2,200.
Where are the UK's coronavirus hotspots?
There are several local hotspots in the UK which have seen a spike in cases since the nationwide lockdown ended.
Public Health England produces a weekly watchlist of areas of concern, based on an assessment of incidence rates, and other indicators such as trends in testing, healthcare activity and deaths.
Stoke-on-Trent is the latest area to be added to the list, but restrictions already in place in parts of Greater Manchester, Lancashire and West Yorkshire have been eased.
In Scotland, restrictions on visiting other households were reintroduced this week in Glasgow, West Dunbartonshire and East Renfrewshire.
Daily deaths not changing
While the number of new confirmed cases of coronavirus has been rising again recently, government-announced deaths have continued to fall since a peak in mid-April.
On Thursday, the government reported 13 deaths - 11 in England, one in Scotland and one in Northern Ireland. No deaths were reported in Wales.
In August, the government's death toll in England was reduced by 5,340 following a review of the way coronavirus deaths are counted.
New rules mean deaths anywhere in the UK are included in the coronavirus total only if they occurred within 28 days of a positive test. Previously in England, all deaths after a positive test were included.
England has seen the majority of UK deaths from Covid-19. Using the 28-day cut-off, there have been just under 37,000.
- TESTING: What tests are available?
- JOBS: How will I be kept safe at work?
- SYMPTOMS: What are they and how to guard against them?
- GLOBAL TRACKER: Where are the virus hotspots?
- YOUR QUESTIONS: We answer your queries
Overall death toll could be more than 60,000
When looking at the overall death toll from coronavirus, official figures count deaths in three different ways.
Government figures count people who tested positive for coronavirus and died within 28 days.
But the ONS publishes weekly updates using two other measures.
The first includes all deaths where coronavirus was mentioned on the death certificate, even if the person had not been tested for the virus. The most recent figures suggest there had been nearly 57,000 deaths by 21 August.
The ONS also looks at all UK deaths over and above the number usually expected for the time of year - known as excess deaths. This measure shows the death toll was above 64,500 by 21 August.
The latest figures show deaths at normal levels, slightly above the five-year average. There were 9,631 deaths registered in the UK in the week of 21 August, up on the previous week and 5.2% above the five-year average.
But the ONS says the increase is not due to coronavirus, with the number of deaths involving Covid-19 in the week of 21 August at the lowest it has been in the last 22 weeks.
The government has argued it is too soon to make definitive international comparisons but, as the impact of the first wave becomes clear, analysis is beginning to suggest the UK has been one of the hardest hit countries.
Figures released by the ONS at the end of July showed that England had the highest levels of excess deaths in Europe between the end of February and the middle of June.
Some areas of Spain and Italy were harder hit than UK cities. But the analysis shows the epidemic in the UK was more widespread than in other countries. Scotland saw the third highest death rate in Europe - behind England and Spain. Wales was in fifth place and Northern Ireland in eighth.
What is the R number in the UK?
The "R number" is the average number of people an infected person will pass the disease on to.
If R is below one, then the number of people contracting the disease will fall; if it is above one, the number will grow.
The government's current estimate for the R number across the whole of the UK is between 0.9 and 1.1.
The estimate for England is between 0.9 and 1.1, while for Scotland it is between 0.8 and 1.2. The estimate for Wales is 0.7-1.0 and in Northern Ireland it is 1.0-1.6.
The government has said in the past that the R number is one of the most important factors in making policy decisions, but it now says these estimates are less reliable and less useful because the number of cases is relatively low.
