Cases of the coronavirus have leapt dramatically, as Public Health England say there are now 37 patients in Blackburn with Darwen confirmed to have the virus.

The new figures, released this afternoon, show that 12 more people in the borough have tested positive for COVID-19 since Wednesday.

It is still one of the lowest figures in the country, with only 11 other local authority areas having fewer positive tests.

And there are now 463 confirmed cases in local authority areas governed by Lancashire County Council, which is an increase of 95 on the previous day.

In Blackpool, there are now 28 patients suffering with the virus, up from 27 yesterday.

This brings the total number of confirmed cases across the whole county to 528 - 108 more.

According to Public Health England there were 4,244 new cases of coronavirus recorded in the UK on Wednesday which is only 10 more than the total recorded the previous day.

This brings the current total number of people testing positive for the virus to 33,718 cases.

The number of confirmed deaths in the UK related to the virus has risen by 569 over the past 24 hours, resulting in a new total of 2,921.