Number of coronavirus cases triples inside four days in Northamptonshire

The number of known Covid-19 cases in Northamptonshire has more than tripled in the last four days.

Public Health England's official figure issued late last night is 64, as at 9am on Thursday March 26.

That is a jump of 21 since the previous count at 9am on Wednesday. The previous biggest daily rise was eight on Monday and Tuesday this week.

Health officials admit the true figure of people contracting the novel coronavirus in the county is much higher since the switch to only testing those already in hospital more than two weeks ago.

Boris Johnson ordered the UK under lockdown for 21 days on Monday in a bid to slow the spread of the deadly bug as experts warn the worst of the virus will take hold within the next fortnight.

Deputy Chief Medical Officer for England, Dr Jenny Harries, has said. the number of cases will continue to rise for the next “two to three weeks” before peaking in mid-April

Nationwide, there are 11,658 known cases. The latest number of deaths in the UK is 578, a rise of 103 on the previous day — the first time the number has spiked by more than 100 in a single day.

Dad-of-two Craig Ruston, 45, who had motor neurone disease, died in Kettering General Hospital last week after testing positive for the virus. Northampton General Hospital also confirmed a 92-year-old man had died there on March 16.

Northamptonshire's first coronavirus case was reported on March 3. Two more members of the same family also tested positive within a week — all after returning from northern Italy which is now the epicentre of the pandemic in Europe, with 6,820 recorded deaths.

Other cases have since been reported cases at Southfield School in Kettering, Nationwide Building Society's administration centre in Northampton and most recently Morrisons distribution centre in Burton Latimer.