Seven more Covid-19 victims at Northampton General Hospital as county death toll hits 230

Seven more victims of Covid-19 have been confirmed by Northampton General Hospital.

The latest deaths, all recorded between Thursday April 23 and Saturday April 25, takes the grim number of fatalities linked to coronavirus to 230 at Northamptonshire's two acute hospitals since the outbreak started.

And the slowdown in the death-rate and the number of new infected patients in hospitals, both in the county and nationwide, will not be enough to persuade Prime Minister Boris Johnson to ease the lockdown, which is about to enter its sixth week.

The PM addressed the nation on his first day back at work at Downing Street after recovering from Covid-19. And his message could not have been clearer to those hoping for an easing on restrictions.

Mr Johnson said: "We are now beginning to turn the tide and I know there will be many people beginning to wonder whether now is the time to go easy on those social distancing measures.

"I understand how hard and stressful it has been to give up, even temporarily, those ancient and basic freedoms".

"I know it is tough and I want to get this economy moving as fast as I can. But I refuse to throw away all the effort and the sacrifice of the British people and to risk a second major outbreak and huge loss of life and the overwhelming of the NHS.

"Difficult judgements will be made and we simply cannot spell out now how fast or slow or even when those changes will be made, though clearly the Government will be saying much more about this in the coming days."

Frontline NHS Staff at Northampton have now seen 140 victims die according to data collated at 5pm last night (Sunday April 26). A further 90 patients died at Kettering General Hospital, although no further victims were announced today.

Official figures only include hospital patients, not those in care homes or in the community. Two residents died at a Stanwick nursing home earlier this month after testing positive for Covid-19 so are not lincluded in the official tally.

Countywide, 984 people had tested positive for Covid-19 as at 9am yesterday. Updated figures for Northamptonshire are due to be revealed later today.

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