THOUSANDS of new coronavirus cases have been recorded in East Lancashire over the last several days.

Over the weekend the number of confirmed new cases in Blackburn with Darwen grew by 1,501 – and a further 405 cases were reported on Monday.

A total of 42,654 people had been confirmed as testing positive for Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic in Blackburn with Darwen when the UK coronavirus daily dashboard was updated on January 11 (Tuesday), up from 42,249 on Monday.

The rate of infection in Blackburn with Darwen now stands at 28,430 cases per 100,000 people, far higher than the England average of 22,051.

In Burnley, a total of 24,638 people had been confirmed as testing positive for Covid-19 as of January 11 - More than 1000 of those new cases.

Across the UK, the number of recorded cases increased by 115,280 over the period, to 14,732,594.

Changes to testing rules mean that from January 6 in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and January 11 in England, people with a positive lateral flow test need to report their result and self-isolate, but do not need to take a confirmatory PCR test unless they develop symptoms.

Cases identified through a rapid lateral flow test are currently only included in case counts for England and Northern Ireland.

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

The dashboard shows 476 people had died in the area by January 11 (Tuesday) – which was unchanged from Monday.

It means there have been two deaths in the past week, which is the same as the previous week.

They were among 21,192 deaths recorded across the North West.

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

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 two-thirds of people in Blackburn with Darwen have received two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine.

The latest figures show 96,596 people had received both jabs by January 10 (Monday) – 69% of those aged 12 and over, based on the number of people on the National Immunisation Management Service database.

Across England, 83 per cent of people aged 12 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.