The number of new coronavirus cases confirmed in the last seven days has tripled in Cornwall, although the amount of deaths remains low.

Government data shows that cases over a seven-day period have risen to 179, compared to 60 the previous week.

In Cornwall and Devon together statistics show that 365 new cases have been confirmed across the region in the past seven days in both pillar 1 data from tests carried out by the NHS and pillar 2 data from commercial partners, compared to 155 new cases confirmed last week.

Plymouth has seen a small rise from 45 to 74, in Torbay case have gone from two to 18, while in the Devon County Council area they have nearly doubled, from 48 to 96.

Of the 365 new cases confirmed in the region, 303 of the cases have a specimen date of between September 18 and September 24, with some of the other 62 cases dated back to August, although the majority of the remainder had a specimen date between September 14 to 17.

Of the 303 of the cases that had a specimen date of between Friday, September 18 and Thursday this week, September 24, 147 of Cornwall's 179 cases occurred in that period.

A large number of the cases in Cornwall - up to 88 of them - are believed to be linked to an outbreak last week at the Pilgrim’s Pride factory in Pool.

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And while there has been a rise in cases across the region from previous figures, the number of people in hospital with coronavirus has continued to remain relatively low compared to the rest of the country.

In the South West, the figure has risen from 15 as of last Friday to 34 as of yesterday, with only three patients on ventilation.

The R Rate for the South West is now being estimated as between 1.1 and 1.4.

The Covid-19 cases are identified by taking specimens from people and sending these specimens to laboratories around the UK to be tested. If the test is positive, this is a referred to as a lab-confirmed case.

Confirmed positive cases are matched to ONS geographical area codes using the home postcode of the person tested.

The data is now shown by the date the specimen was taken from the person being tested and while it gives a useful analysis of the progression of cases over time, it does mean that the latest day's figures may be incomplete.

Cases received from laboratories by 12.30am are included in the counts published that day. While there may have been new cases of coronavirus confirmed or people having tested positive, those test results either yet to reach Public Health England for adding to the dataset or were not received in time for the latest daily figures to be published.