Nine more Covid-19 victims as number of cases in Northamptonshire passes 1,000

NHS officials today revealed nine more Covid-19 patients have died in Northamptonshire's two main hospitals.

The latest victims takes the grim total to 243 — 148 at Northampton General Hospital and 95 at Kettering — when the latest data was collated at 5pm last night (Tuesday April 28).

That comes after the number of positive tests in the county topped 1,000.

Front-line staff at the Cliftonville site battling to treat patients with the deadly coronavirus bug recorded the latest fatalities over six days between April 14 and April 19.

Five more patients died at Kettering General Hospital between April 24 and 26.

These figures only include patients in the county's two main hospitals, however, and the true number of victims in the county could be 33 per cent higher.

The Office of National Statistics revealed 42 coronavirus-releated deaths in Northamptonshire care homes between April 10 and April 24 while there were 127 in hospital over the same period. And the lack of wider testing so far means the effect of the pandemic is being vastly under-estimated as cases go unreported.

The number of positive coronavirus tests in Northamptonshire reached 1,008 according to figures collated at 9am yesterday.

The rise of 18 cases in the previous 24 hours was the biggest increase in six days, but still way down on the average of 42 fresh cases each day during two weeks from April 2 to April 15 when the virus was approaching its peak.

Northamptonshire's first coronavirus case was reported on March 3 in a patient who had recently returned from Italy.

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