NHS confirms five more coronavirus deaths in Northamptonshire's hospitals

Five more coronavirus deaths have been confirmed at Northamptonshire's two main hospitals.

NHS England included the information in Thursday's daily bulletin that four have patients died at Northampton General Hospital — three on November 2 and one on November 3 — who had either tested positive for Covid-19 within the previous 28 days or had the virus mentioned on their death certificate.

One more patient died at Kettering General Hospital on Wednesday (November 4).

Today's sad news takes the total to 24 deaths among coronavirus patients in the county — 15 at Northampton and nine at Kettering General Hospital — during the 'second wave' of the pandemic.

NHS England revealed there were 199 coronavirus deaths in Trusts between November 1 and November 4 across the country.

Covid-19 was already linked to 311 deaths in Northampton and 220 in Kettering between March and August.

A further 152 coronavirus-related deaths in county care homes have also been notified by the Care Quality Commission.

Scientists' fears off the health service becoming overwhelmed by the surge in cases prompted the Government to impose a second national lockdown from today.

Toby Sanders, chief executive of NHS Northamptonshire Clinical Commissioning Group, told a County Council Oversight Board meeting earlier today that the two hospitals were treating 88 Covid-19 positive patients by Wednesday.

He also said the number of patients with the virus in hospital is "doubling on a fortnight-to-fortnight basis.

Mr Sanders added: "From an NHS perspective, we know there is a lag of ten days or so between cases translating into hospital admissions.

"That means we are still braced for numbers of acute admissions to carry on increasing at our two hospitals in Northampton and Kettering."

People are being asked to stay at home unless they really need to go out while non-essential retailers must close while pubs and restaurants can only operate as takeaways until at least December 2 as the country battles a sharp rise in coronavirus cases.

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