NHS confirms Covid death at Northamptonshire hospital, two days after Boris Johnson's grim warning

NHS England has confirmed another Covid-related death among patients in Northamptonshire's hospitals.

Today's bulletin revealed 29 people had sadly died with the virus including one at Kettering General Hospital on Sunday (July 4).

It came just five days after the hospital confirmed it had no Covid patients occupying beds while Northampton General had three, including one in critical care.

The latest weekly snapshot showing if the number of coronavirus patients being treated in the county's two acute hospitals is rising is due to be released tomorrow (Thursday).

Boris Johnson announced on Monday plans to lift all Covid restrictions on July 19.

Yet he warned: "We're seeing rising hospital admissions, and we must reconcile ourselves, sadly, to more deaths from Covid,"

Northamptonshire has seen 1,132 new positive tests in the last seven days — more than double the number from the previous week.

Medics are urging all adults to take up offers of Covid-19 vaccinations which they say offer protection against serious illness.

Northamptonshire is on target to offer vaccinations to everybody aged 18-and-over by July 18, but the uptake means around 20 per cent are likely to be unprotected.

County Public Health director Lucy Wightman this week admitted the Prime Minister's decision to lift restrictions when cases are rising could be seen as a gamble, saying: "It feels uncomfortable while case rates are still escalating rapidly as they have in the last week."

But she added: "I do recognise this is a really difficult decision and at some point we do have to take a step forward and live with the level of risk as we do with a number of infectious diseases.

"You can still catch Covid if you've been vaccinated and you can still pass it on. It just means you're less likely to be seriously ill with it. So we've got to recognise there are still risks out there and we need to be cautious."

The previous Covid-linked death in Northamptonshire was on June 14 at KGH — which was the first in 52 days.

In total, 495 Covid patients have died at KGH since the pandemic began and another 690 at Northampton.

More 300 care home residents have also died with the virus according to data from the Office for National Statistics.