Second wave Covid-19 deaths pass total from the first in Northamptonshire hospitals

The number of deaths in Northamptonshire's two main hospitals during the second wave of Covid-19 infections has overtaken the number from the first.

NHS England has confirmed 1,066 deaths among coronavirus patients in hospitals since March — 622 at Northampton General Hospital and 444 at Kettering.

More than half, 535, have occurred since September.

The news comes when the rates of deaths, hospital admissions and positive tests are all slowing down following more than a month of national lockdown — and Northamptonshire is racing ahead with the delivery of more than 100,000 doses of vaccine.

Yet health chiefs and NHS staff are banging home the message that we are not out of the woods yet.

Kettering General Hospital’s chief executive, Eileen Doyle, said: “Although it is an improving picture for our inpatients, we have more patients in intensive care beds so the sickest are growing in numbers.

“We often see a higher number of deaths in winter, but the numbers now are still remarkably high. That really does affect loved ones and families, and it also affects our staff who are having to deal with this day in day out.”

Northampton and Kettering General hospitals have seen a combined 44 coronavirus deaths in the week to February 1, compared to 64 in the previous seven days.

Number of Covid-19 patients being treated in hospitals stood at 250 at the end of last week — down by nearly 150 from ten days earlier but still more than the peak during the first wave in April.

And, while the weekly number of positive tests has fallen by around half from more than 5,000 since the start of lockdown, rates are still significantly higher than both national and regional averages.

Local figures on the effect of the pandemic’s second wave are backed up by numbers from the Office for National Statistics, which are widely regarded as the most reliable measure of deaths involving the virus nationally last week.

They showed the total number of people who died in the UK with Covid-19 on their death certificate was just over 117,000 as of 22 January.

Of those deaths, 57,701 took place between the beginning of the pandemic last spring and the end of August.

Some 59,677 COVID deaths have happened since then.