UPDATE: Bedford has 135 new cases in just 24 hours

As of today (December 21), Bedford has recorded 135 new cases of coronavirus, with a total of 4,606 people now diagnosed with the deadly virus, according to the latest figures from Public Health England.

There was one death in Central Bedfordshire (284), two deaths in Bedford (222) and no deaths in Luton (244).

The town is now in the newly created Tier 4 with the rest of the county - which is effectively a full lockdown - with nearby Luton currently recording over 3,500 more cases than Bedford.

Central Bedfordshire has 151 new Covid cases with a total of 5,678 - while Luton recorded 124 with a new total of 8,139.

Meanwhile, Buckinghamshire now has 11,257 cases of Covid, Hertfordshire has 26,581 and Milton Keynes has 6,727 cases.

The new figures are recorded between 5pm the previous day to 5pm and unfortunately don't include the number of patients recovered from Covid-19.

Nationally, the number of coronavirus cases has risen by 33,364 and now stands at 2,073,511. The number of deaths has risen by 215 to 67,616.

The figures come from the Government website which is available for the public to view here