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Title: The Berkshire areas with new coronavirus cases in the last 24hours Post by: Cookham v Coronavirus on August 17, 2020, 12:47:07 PM A number of new cases of coronavirus have been confirmed across Berkshire in the last 24 hours.
Across the UK 318,484 people have now tested positive for coronavirus and sadly 41,366 people have died - with five in the last 24 hours. This news comes as the national press reports Public Health England (PHE) is to be scrapped and replaced by a new organisation set up specifically to deal with a pandemic. Health Secretary Matt Hancock will announce this week that the pandemic response work of PHE will be merged with NHS Test and Trace, according to The Sunday Telegraph. The paper said the new body will be called the Institute for Health Protection and will become “effective” next month, although it will take until next spring to complete. Berkshire's total number of positive tests now stands at 3,508. West Berkshire saw the biggest increase in cases, with five new infections confirmed in the past 24 hours. This is how they break down of cases for each area of Berkshire: Reading : 823 cases (increase of three) Slough : 728 cases ( no change ) Wokingham : 615 cases ( no change ) West Berkshire : 506 cases (increase of five) Windsor and Maidenhead: 439 cases (increase of two) Bracknell Forest : 397 cases ( no change ) Meanwhile getting schools back in September is being seen as a key test for Education Secretary Gavin Williamson, already under pressure after thousands of students had their A-levels downgraded. He has already been forced to abandon a pledge to get some primary school pupils in England back before the summer holidays, and a second failure could be fatal for his political prospects. |