MORE than 800 new cases of Covid have been confirmed across Dorset in the past day, according to latest data.

New figures show a total of 819 new infections across the BCP and Dorset Council areas in the 24-hours up to 4pm on Monday, December 20.

Of these, 492 were in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole with 327 in wider Dorset.

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Since the start of the pandemic, 70,180 cases have been reported in the BCP area with 49,551 in the rest of the county.

In the last seven days, 2,932 positive results have been returned across the conurbation giving a rate per 100,000 people of 738.6 with 2,178 cases in Dorset and a rate of 573.5.

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A further 91,743 lab-confirmed Covid-19 cases have been recorded in the UK as of 9am on Monday, the Government said. The Government said a further 44 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19.

Separate figures published by the Office for National Statistics show there have now been 172,000 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.

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The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said there had been 8,044 additional confirmed cases of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 reported across the UK. This brings the total confirmed cases of the variant in the UK to 45,145.