MORE than 120 new cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed in Dorset in the last 24-hours.

Latest data on the government website shows 77 people tested positive in the BCP area up to 4.40pm on Thursday.

That means since the start of the pandemic a total of 7,982 positive results have been recorded across Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole.

In the past seven days, 340 new cases have been reported in BCP giving a rate per 100,000 people of 86.

In Dorset, 45 new cases have been reported in the last day bringing the overall total since March to 3,660.

A total of 174 new cases have occurred in Dorset over the past week with a rate of 46.

In the New Forest, 34 new cases have been confirmed with 123 in the last seven days. So far in the district 2,136 people have tested positive.

The current rate is 68.3.

The Government said that, as of 9am on Thursday, there had been a further 35,383 lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK.

This includes the 11,000 positive cases from Wales that were not recorded in official figures between December 9 and 15 due to maintenance work on Public Health Wales’ computer systems at the end of last week.

It brings the total number of cases in the UK to 1,948,660.

On Wednesday, 129 new cases were confirmed across Dorset.