Reading now has one of the highest Covid-19 case rates in the country, with case numbers now almost doubling every week.

The highly transmissible Delta variant originating in India is now dominant, making up around 80 per cent of cases in Reading and triggering a surge in positive tests.

Reading now has the 11th highest case rates in England, with 84.1 cases per 100,000 in the last seven days.

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The data is delayed by five days, with the latest data coming from positive tests on May 29.

The case rate has gone up from 45.1 the week before (May 22) and 22.9 the week before that (May 15), a near doubling, and is the 17th highest in the UK.

Across the UK, the average is 33.7 cases per 100,000 in the last week.

Behind on vaccine uptake

More than 30 per cent of people in Reading (30.3 per cent) have now received two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine in Reading, while 55 per cent have received a first dose, according to NHS statistics from June 2.

This is behind the average across the UK, with more than 50 per cent of people now having received both doses across the four nations and 75.5 per cent of people have received a single dose.

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None of the Berkshire local authority areas have yet achieved a 50 per cent rate for both doses, with West Berkshire coming closest on 49.5 per cent.