There has been a small increase in COVID-19 cases across St Albans district in the last seven days.

At the time of publishing, St Albans had 33 confirmed coronavirus cases between March 20 to March 26, up compared with the previous week.

There are now 22 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people across the district. Although this is a slight rise compared to last week's stats, cases in the area remain much the same. Last week, there were 18 cases per 100,00 residents.

Regardless of St Albans' slight rise in cases, they continue to sit firmly below England's average area, where 41 cases of coronavirus are registered per 100,000 people, down from 42 last week.

A total of 7,760 cumulative cases have been recorded in St Albans up to March 30, since records began last year.

East Herts now boasts the lowest case rate in the county, with just 17 cases per 100,000 people. St Albans follows closely behind, with neighbouring Hertsmere having 29 cases per 100,000. Welwyn Hatfield has seen a significant increase, and now has 41 cases per 100,000, up from 33 last week.

The highest case rate in Herts - by a significant margin - can be found in Stevenage, where 87 people per 100,000 tested positive for coronavirus.

Across the district, more than 50,000 residents have had at least one Covid jab as of March 21, according to NHS England data from the National Immunisation Management Service.

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On March 31, government data states that, as of March 30, 2,455 people across Herts are registered to have died within 28 days of their first positive coronavirus test, with 307 of those hailing from St Albans.

But, as of March 19, records show that 2,804 Herts residents have had deaths registered with COVID recorded as a cause of death. 351 of these deaths were registered in our district.

According to the government's coronavirus dashboard, 126,670 across the UK have now sadly died within 28 days of a positive COVID-19 as of March 30. A total of 149,168 deaths have been recorded in the UK with COVID-19 mentioned as a cause of death on the death certificate as of March 19.

The UK’s R-number, which represents the rate of transmission, sits between 0.7 and 0.9, meaning the rate of transmission is declining across the whole of the UK as the R-number sits below one.

In the East of England, the estimated R-number is between 0.7 and 1.