Coronavirus: How many confirmed cases are there in your area?

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There have been nearly 300,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus so far in the UK and more than 45,000 people have died, government figures show. However, these numbers only include people tested, and the actual death toll is higher.

Here we a take a look at some of the key figures of the pandemic in the UK - estimates of the death toll and whether cases are rising or falling. You can also find out more about cases in your area using our search tool and map.

Find out how the pandemic has affected your area and how it compares with the national average:

Public Health England figures on coronavirus cases were updated on 2 July to include people tested in the wider community, as well as hospitals and healthcare workers, causing the numbers to increase sharply. Figures for the rest of the UK already included people tested in the wider population.

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Decline in new cases stalls amid concern over hotspots

The new coronavirus, which causes the disease Covid-19, was first confirmed in the UK at the end of January, but the number of daily confirmed cases and related deaths only began to increase significantly by the second half of March.

Lockdown restrictions came into force across the UK at the end of that month and the number of new confirmed cases continued to rise until April, before starting to fall steadily throughout May and June.

However, that the downward trend now appears to have stalled.

On Sunday, a further 747 cases were reported.

Since some of the March lockdown restrictions were eased, a number of local outbreaks have been identified across the country. Health Secretary Matt Hancock says targeted action is being taken every week against such clusters of infections.

The Lancashire town of Blackburn with Darwen is one of the latest hotspots, where coronavirus cases are rising, as is Luton in Bedfordshire. Both towns say gyms and other leisure facilities will remain closed for the time being.

Local lockdown measures were announced in Leicester at the end of June and although non-essential shops were told on Friday they could reopen, people have been urged not leave their homes just to go shopping.

Public Health England has also produced a coronavirus watchlist of areas, based on an assessment of incidence rates, and other indicators such as trends in testing, local responses and plans, healthcare activity and mortality.

Decline in daily deaths has slowed

While the fall in the number of new cases of coronavirus appears to have stalled, government-announced deaths have continued to drop since a peak in mid-April, though the downward trend has slowed recently.

On Sunday, a further 14 deaths were reported. The figure is often lower at weekends because there is a delay in reporting deaths on Saturdays and Sundays.

The latest figures were published on the government's coronavirus dashboard - although a review is taking place into the way deaths from coronavirus are counted in England.

Public Health England have confirmed that reported deaths may have included people who tested positive months before they died. Other UK nations include only those who died within 28 days of testing positive for coronavirus.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock told a Commons committee last week that the results of the review would be published "very, very shortly".

The majority of the UK's deaths have been in England, with just over 41,000 so far.

One new death was reported in Wales on Sunday. There were no new deaths in Scotland. Northern Ireland is no longer updating its figures at weekends.

Overall death toll could be more than 60,000

When looking at the overall death toll from coronavirus, official figures count such deaths in three different ways.

On a daily basis, Public Health England counts the deaths of people who have tested positive for coronavirus, providing the government with a figure it announces each 24 hours.

But the Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes weekly updates using two other measures.

The first includes all deaths where coronavirus was mentioned on the death certificate, even if the person had not been tested for the virus. The latest figures using this measure suggest there had been more than 55,000 deaths by 10 July.

The ONS also looks at all UK deaths over and above the number usually expected for the time of year. The latest figures for this measure show the death toll rose to more than 64,000 up to 10 July.

In recent weeks, figures used in this third measure have actually been falling.

This is because the number of deaths from all causes registered in a single week - including coronavirus - has now stayed below the five-year average for four weeks in a row.

The chart below shows the total number of deaths from all causes, with coronavirus deaths highlighted in red. They account for 4% of all the deaths registered in the week to 10 July compared with almost 40% at the height of the pandemic.

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The UK has the highest official death toll in Europe and the third highest in the world, after the US and Brazil.

However, both countries have much larger populations than the UK and the number of people who have died per 100,000 people in the UK is currently higher than for either the US or Brazil.

The government has argued it is too soon to make definitive international comparisons but, as the impact of the first wave becomes clear in many countries, analysis is beginning to suggest the UK has been the hardest hit of the leading G7 nations.

What is the R number in the UK?

The "R number" is the average number of people an infected person will pass the disease on to.

If R is below one, then the number of people contracting the disease will fall; if it is above one, the number will grow.

The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, known as Sage, believes the R number across the whole of the UK is currently between 0.7 and 0.9.

The government says in England itself it is between 0.8 and 1.0.

The estimate for Scotland is between 0.6 and 0.9. In Northern Ireland it is between 0.7 and 0.9, while it is between 0.6 and 0.8 in Wales.

The government has said in the past that the R number is one of the most important factors in deciding when lockdown measures can be eased. But it now says that infection rates are too low to calculate R precisely in all areas of the UK.