A TOTAL of 40 people have tested positive for coronavirus in Berkshire in the past 24 hours, the latest figures show.

Public Health England has recorded 40 new lab-confirmed cases in the past 24 hours, in areas including Reading, Bracknell, Wokingham, West Berkshire, Slough and Windsor and Maidenhead.

These figures, correct as of Friday, April 16, at 4pm, bring the latest total for the county to 56,151 cases.

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The local breakdown for the past 24 hours as follows:

Bracknell Forest - 3 cases, 7,044 total

Wokingham - 7 cases, 8,168 total

Reading - 5 cases, 10,839 total

West Berkshire - 2 cases, 6,322 total

Windsor and Maidenhead - 8 cases, 8,420 total

Slough - 15 cases, 15,358 total

There have now been 4,383,732 people across the UK who have tested positive for the virus.

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

Bracknell Forest - 26.1

Wokingham - 18.1

Reading - 29.7

West Berkshire - 14.5

Slough - 70.2

Windsor and Maidenhead - 31.7

In today's national Covid news:

The discovery of a new coronavirus variant in the UK, which was detected in India, features two mutations that could be a cause for concern, an expert has said.

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Public Health England reported that 73 cases of the B.1.617 variant have been confirmed in England as well as four cases in Scotland.

Officials have designated it a variant under investigation.

Paul Hunter, professor in medicine at the University of East Anglia, said the variant featured two "escape mutations" - E484Q and L452R - that "are causing people to be concerned".

He added: "There's laboratory evidence that both of these are escape mutations.

"Basically, applying what we know about other human coronaviruses would suggest that this is going to be even less controlled by vaccine.

"But we don't know that for certain at the moment."

Around one in 480 people in private households in England had Covid-19 in the week to April 10 - down from one in 340 the previous week, according to the latest estimates from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

It is the lowest figure since the week to September 19, 2020, when the estimate stood at one in 500.