Number of Northamptonshire's Covid-19 victims may be one-third HIGHER than we thought

The number of Covid-19 victims in Northamptonshire could be at least a third higher than the latest official figure of 234.

On the day when the number of positive coronavirus tests in the county passed 1,000, data published by the Office of National Statistics showed 42 coronavirus-related deaths in the county's care homes in a two-week period.

Those victims are not included in Public Health England's official tally of 127 patients who died in Northamptonshire's two main hospitals at Northampton and Kettering at the same time between April 10 and April 24.

Put together, the total figure over the 15 days is 169 — 33 per cent higher than the official number.

PHE say 234 people had died in Northamptonshire when the latest grim figures were collated at 5pm on Monday. That would rise to 311 taking into account the 33 per cent difference between the data.

Critics have pointed to a huge hole in official daily updates which only count patients dying in hospital, not in care homes or at home.

And the lack of wider testing being made available means the effect of the pandemic is being vastly under-estimated.

ONS stats revealed 42 deaths in county care homes which included mention of Covid-19 on the death certificate between April 10 and April 24.

Over the same period, 127 people with Covid-19 died at Northampton General Hospital and Kettering General Hospital.

The Government say it has not been possible to include deaths outside main NHS hospitals so far.

But Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced yesterday that numbers of deaths in care homes will be published alongside those in hospital from today (Wednesday April 29) although he did not indicate if these figures will be national or broken down by local NHS Trusts.

The number of positive coronavirus tests in Northamptonshire reached 1,008 according to NHS figures collated at 9am yesterday (Tuesday April 30).

The rise of 18 cases in the previous 24 hours was the biggest increase in six days, but still way down on the average of 42 fresh cases each day during two weeks from April 2 to April 15 when the virus was approaching its peak.

PHE reported the first coronavirus case in Northamptonshire on March 3 in a patient who had recently returned from Italy,