THE number of recorded coronavirus cases in Oxfordshire increased by 73 over the last 24 hours, official figures show.

Public Health England figures show that 10,532 people had been confirmed as testing positive for Covid-19 by 9am on Thursday (December 3) in Oxfordshire, up from 10,459 the same time on Wednesday.

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The health body is now including Pillar 2 tests – those carried out by commercial partners – alongside Pillar 1 tests, which are analysed in NHS or PHE laboratories and which made up the first stage of the Government's mass testing programme.

The rate of infection in Oxfordshire now stands at 1,523 cases per 100,000 people, lower than the England average of 2,556.

Across the UK, the number of recorded cases increased by 14,878 over the period to 1,674,134.

Two in five close contacts of people with coronavirus are not being reached by the test and trace system in Oxfordshire, figures suggest.

Data from the Department for Health and Social care shows 8,232 people who tested positive for Covid-19 in Oxfordshire were transferred to the Test and Trace service between May 28 and November 25. That means 655 new cases were transferred in the latest seven-day period.

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Contact tracers ask new patients to give details for anyone they were in close contact with in the 48 hours before their symptoms started.

This led to 21,903 close contacts being identified over the period – those not managed by local health protection teams, which are dealt with through a call centre or online.

But just 60 per cent of those were reached, meaning 8,770 people were not contacted or did not respond.