Tuesday update: Northamptonshire's hospitals confirm no new Covid-19 victims for third day in a row

Tuesday's NHS bulletin showed no new Covid-19 victims at Northamptonshire's two main hospitals for a third day in a row.

Lists issued daily since Saturday have all showed no deaths at Northampton General Hospital or Kettering General when the latest figures were collated at 5pm the preivous night.

All this on the day Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced Northamptonshire's pubs, restaurants, hotels and hairdressers have been given the go-ahead to open on July 4 after more than 4 closed during the coronavirus lockdown.

Social distancing rules will be eased as the PM promised people should remain two metres apart where possible but a "one metre plus" rule will be introduced.

Two households will also be able to meet indoors and stay overnight — with social distancing.

Daily bulletins usually allow up to a five-day lag in reporting new deaths so any fatalities which occurred on Friday of last week may not yet be included in the official records.

Saturday's data included five deaths on previous days among patients who tested positive for coronavirus at Northampton, the latest of which was last Thursday.

The most recent confirmed victim at Kettering General Hospital was a week ago, on Tuesday June 16.

NGH has seen 283 Covid-19 victims since the first deaths in the county on March 16 while 210 have died at Kettering.

Office for National Statistcs data identifed a further 127 deaths related to coronavirus in Northamptonshire's care homes up to June 12, taking the total number of known Covid-19 deaths in the county to 620.

Ten more victims have died in the care of Northamptonshire Health Foundation Trust during Covid-19 crisis, according the NHS.

NHFT provides services in the community in Northamptonshire and also in other counties. Since no locations have been confirmed for any of the deaths so they are not counted in the confirmed total for Northamptonshire.

The latest figures for infections in the county rose to 1,671 at 9am yesterday (Monday) with four new cases confirmed by lab tests in the previous 24 hours.

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