Coronavirus in Berkshire round up - Monday, February 15

Public Health England has recorded 153 lab-confirmed cases in areas including Reading, Bracknell, Wokingham, West Berkshire, Slough and Windsor and Maidenhead.

These figures, correct as of Friday, February 15 at 4pm, bring the county's lab-confirmed positive Covid-19 tests total to 52,307 according to Public Health England.

READ MORE: The FIVE Reading areas with fewer than 10 recent Covid cases

RBH

The local breakdown for the past 24 hours as follows:

Reading - 19 cases, 10,243 total

West Berkshire - 16 cases, 5,850 total

Bracknell - 25 cases, 6,643 total

Wokingham - 20 cases, 7,665 total

Slough - 60 cases, 14,089 total

Windsor and Maidenhead - 13 cases, 7,817 total

There have now been 4,047,843 people across the UK who have tested positive for Covid-19.

The total number of deaths - those with Covid-19 listed on their death certificate - across the UK has now reached 121,674.

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

Reading - 139.1

West Berkshire - 124.3

Bracknell - 141.2

Wokingham - 92.9

Slough - 246.8

Windsor and Maidenhead - 107

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In today's national coronavirus news

The GMB union has warned that its security guard members working in quarantine hotels are being put "at risk" by the Government's "rushed policy".

National officer Nadine Houghton said: "Once again, the Government's rushed policy is putting staff at risk.

"Without working through the detail and listening to the voice of the workers delivering their policies, ministers risks failing at the first hurdle when trying to contain new variants.

"The Government has given security companies less than 36 hours' notice to put staff and plans in place to carry out this policy. It's a shambles.

"We will not sit back while our members are asked to do potentially unsafe work. There must be thorough negotiations on risk assessments and ensuring proper PPE is being provided.

"This isn't just about the safety of workers, it's about preventing new variants from spreading at a time when we are beginning to turn the tide on the virus."

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Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the Government was looking to the next priority groups after meeting its target of vaccinating the top four groups by February 15.

He told Sky News: "There is no rest for the wicked and we are straight on to the next groups, so the letters have already been sent to over a million over 65-year-olds asking them to come forward, and also the next group after that is those who have underlying health conditions and are carers.

"There is a huge programme under way rolling out to invite the next group of people to be vaccinated and, at the same time, from next month we have the second jabs of all the people who have come since January to make sure they happen on time, because they have to be within a specific 12-week time period.

"So there is still a huge amount of work to do but we have managed to vaccinate those who are most vulnerable."

Mr Hancock said efforts would be made to reach those who are in the top four priority groups but had yet to be given a jab.

Matt Hancock said data was not yet available to suggest what the impact of the vaccination programme had been on reducing Covid-related deaths.