Covid round up in Berkshire - Sunday, March 7

[Cookham v Coronavirus]

More than 60 people have tested positive for Covid-19 in the past 24 hours.

Public Health England has recorded 62 new lab-confirmed cases in the past 24 hours, in areas including Reading, Bracknell, Wokingham, West Berkshire, Slough and Windsor and Maidenhead.

These figures, correct as of Sunday, March 7, at 4pm bringing the latest total for the county to 54,224 cases.

The local breakdown for the past 24 hours as follows:

Bracknell Forest - 7 cases, 6,846 total

Wokingham - 10 cases, 7,915 total

Reading - 10 cases, 10,553 total

West Berkshire - 8 cases, 6,133

Slough - 15 cases, 14,708 total

Windsor and Maidenhead - 12, 8,069 total

There have now been 4,218,520 people across the UK who have tested positive for Covid-19 - a daily increase of 5,177.

The latest seven-day rate per 100,000 people locally are as follows:

Bracknell - 40.8

Wokingham - 52

Reading - 53.2

West Berkshire - 46.7

Slough - 90.3

Windsor and Maidenhead - 39.6

In today's national coronavirus news:

The nation should prepare itself for a “hard winter” with the threat of Covid-19 and a flu surge still a possibility, a Public Health England official has said.

The NHS will have to be ready for a potential rise in respiratory viruses as people wait to discover if there is a strong level of immunity in the population, according to Dr Susan Hopkins, who advises the Government on its Covid policy.

Pupils in England are set to return to school for the first time in two months on Monday as part of the first stage of lockdown easing.

Some scientists have raised concerns the increased levels of interaction could push the reproduction number – the R value – above 1, causing coronavirus to spread faster.

The Prime Minister echoed the warnings of education experts that more damage was being done to pupils by keeping them at home than having them return to in-person lessons.