KGH records its first Covid death for a week

A KGH coronavirus patient has died, the first Covid-19 death recorded at the hospital for a week.

The death announced today (Thursday) took place on June 23, seven days after the last confirmed Covid-19 death at the Rothwell Road hospital on June 16.

However, because of a delay in reporting it is possible that other deaths have occurred which will be confirmed at a later date by NHS bosses.

The sobering death toll at KGH now stands at 211, with another 290 at Northampton General Hospital.

In NHS England's daily update a further 55 deaths in English hospitals were confirmed with patients aged between 49 and 98.

But there is encouraging news for the county with the rate of new cases falling in Northamptonshire, as reported by the Northants Telegraph earlier today.

In the last two weeks the number of new cases per 100,000 people in all seven Northants local authorities slowed down significantly, with the rate almost halving in Kettering.

The town appeared to be an emerging hotspot in the two weeks between May 9 and May 23 when 50 new cases were confirmed, which was a rate of 49.1 new cases per 100,000 people. Only 12 other local authorities in England recorded more cases in the same period.

However, since then Kettering has confirmed just 33 more cases in four weeks. In the past two weeks between June 6 and June 20, there were 11 new cases, a rate of just 10.8 new cases per 100,000 people.

Wellingborough's rate has fallen from 45.2 new cases per 100,000 people to 5.0, the second lowest rate in Northamptonshire.

Corby has the lowest rate of increasing coronavirus cases in Northants. Just four cases were confirmed between June 6 and June 20, a rate of 2.8 for every 100,000 residents - a big drop from a rate of 34.6 in the two weeks between May 9 and May 23.

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