Covid-19 in the UK: How many coronavirus cases are there in my area?

There have been more than 8.8 million confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK and nearly 140,000 people have died, government figures show.

However, these figures include only people who have died within 28 days of testing positive for coronavirus.

So far, 86% of people aged 12 and over in the UK have had their first dose of a coronavirus vaccine and 79% have had their second. A booster campaign for the most vulnerable is also under way.

Find out how the pandemic has affected your area and how it compares with the national average:

Note: Vaccination data now includes 12-15 year olds so the percentages for England, Scotland and Northern Ireland will all be lower than they were previously.

If you can't see the look-up click here.

After falling sharply at the end of July, the average number of daily confirmed cases has been climbing since the end of September.

A further 40,954 confirmed cases were announced on Tuesday.

The recent spikes have been driven by the Delta variant, which spreads faster than the previously most common Kent variant (now named Alpha).

NHS leaders have called for the reintroduction of some Covid restrictions, such as mandatory face coverings in crowded and enclosed spaces, to avoid a winter crisis.

But the government said there were no plans to activate the so-called Plan B for winter. They said they would continue to monitor the data but vaccination had weakened link between cases, hospital admissions and deaths.

It is thought the infection rate in the first peak of the virus in spring last year was much higher than was evident from the reported number of cases. Testing capacity was then too limited to detect the true number of daily cases.

The red areas on the map below show the places currently seeing the highest number of cases per 100,000 people.

You can use our postcode look-up to check what the rules are where you live.

So far, nearly 50 million people have had a first vaccine dose - about 86% of over-12s. More than 45 million - about 79% of over-12s - have had both doses.

A booster campaign is also now under way, with 30 million people in nine priority groups qualifying for a third dose.

While the uptake of first and second doses has dropped off there has been a steep rise in people having booster doses. More than 5.4 million of these doses have been administered in England since 16 September.

In Scotland there have been almost 430,000 booster doses. Northern Ireland have given more than 56,000 booster doses. Wales does not currently publish figures on booster doses.

The UK Health Security Agency, which replaced Public Health England, estimates that, up to 24 September, the UK vaccination programme has prevented about 24 million infections, 260,000 hospitalisations and 127,500 deaths.

There were 263 deaths within 28 days of a positive test reported on Tuesday, the highest daily figure since March.

Of the 263 deaths, 208 were in England, 31 were in Wales, 20 were in Scotland and four in Northern Ireland.

England has seen the majority of UK deaths since the pandemic began, with nearly 122,000 so far.

Prof Chris Whitty, the UK government's chief medical adviser, has urged those not yet vaccinated to get the jab as soon as possible, saying: "Winter is coming and people really should take this seriously."

He said data showed that in every age bracket there is a "very substantially smaller" risk of being admitted to hospital and dying with Covid for people who have been vaccinated.

The most recent government figures show 8,693 people with coronavirus in hospital in the UK, up from 7,799 a week earlier.

Of those in hospital with coronavirus, 913 are in mechanical ventilation beds - using ventilators to help them breathe.

Although numbers of hospital patients with coronavirus are higher than they were over the summer, they are far below the peak of nearly 40,000 people back in January.

Looking at Covid patients in hospital by region, the numbers are higher than in the summer and are now once again rising in most regions.

When looking at the overall death toll from coronavirus, official figures count deaths in three different ways, each giving a slightly different number.

First, government figures - the ones reported each day - count people who died within 28 days of testing positive for coronavirus. This figure is now nearly 140,000.

According to the latest ONS figures, the UK has now seen more than 160,000 deaths - that's all those deaths where coronavirus was mentioned on the death certificate even if the person had not been tested for the virus.

The third measure counts all deaths over and above the usual number at the time of year - that figure was a little over 131,000 to 8 October.

In total, there were 12,845 deaths registered in the week to 15 October, which was 15% above the five-year average.

Of the total deaths, 890 were related to coronavirus, 65 more than the previous week.

There have been more deaths involving Covid than "excess" deaths since the start of the pandemic, meaning non-Covid deaths must be below usual levels.

This could be down to the milder flu season last winter - due to less travel and more social distancing - and because some people who might have died for other reasons had there been no pandemic, died of Covid.

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 has said in the past that the R number is one of the most important factors in making policy decisions.

The latest R number estimate for England is 1.0 to 1.2, while for Scotland it is 0.8 to 1.0, for Wales it is 0.8 to 1.1 and for Northern Ireland it is 0.9 to 1.1.