Tuesday update: Numbers of Northamptonshire's Covid-19 victims finally starting to slow down

Numbers of Covid-19 victims in Northamptonshire are finally slowing down, but with 640 lives already lost.

Today's NHS bulletin revealed no new deaths among patients at the county's two main hospitals for the fourth day out of the last five.

Figures revealed the most recent confirmed Covid-19 death at Northampton General Hospital was last Monday (June 29).

One patient died at Kettering General Hospital on Saturday, the only reported fatality there in the last ten days since June 26.

Daily bulletins usually allow up to a five-day lag in reporting new fatalities among patients testing positive for the coronavirus — or even longer. So, any deaths which have may have occurred since Thursday may still not be included in official records.

But it is a far cry from just three weeks ago when 14 people had died in one week at Northampton General Hospital.

Covid-19 has so far claimed 512 lives in the two hospitals during the pandemic — 298 at Northampton and 214 at Ketttering.

Office for National Statistics date also revealed one death among care home residents in Northamptonshire was linked to Covid-19 last week, the first since June 11.

That takes the total number of coronavirus-related deaths in county care homes to 128.

Yet county health officials are not letting up in their warnings to stay safe as neighbours Leicester enters the second week of its local lockdown following a spike in cases.

Director of Health Lucy Wightman said: "Overall in Northamptonshire, the trend of new infections is still reducing and hospitalisations and deaths due to Covid-19 continue to decline.

“However, I must emphasise that the virus has not gone away, and I continue to urge everyone to stay alert and act responsibly in helping us to control the virus and keep transmission rates low.

"As lockdown measures ease, it is essential that we act responsibly and minimise risks of increased transmission rates. It is easy to see from other areas how the number of cases can increase rapidly, with far-reaching consequences."