Friday update: NHS daily bulletin reveals no new Covid-19 victims in Northamptonshire hospitals
More encouraging news as death toll stays flat for fourth time in six days
Friday's NHS bulletin included no new Covid-19 victims at Northamptonshire's two main hospitals for the fourth time in six days.
Lists issued daily between Saturday and Monday all showed no deaths had been added to the grim tally of 501 at Northampton General and Kettering General hospitals when the latest figures were collated at 5pm the previous night.
Before that, Northamptonshire had seen only six days with no new deaths being announced in nearly three months.
Daily bulletins usually allow up to a five-day lag in reporting new deaths so any fatalities which have occurred since the weekend may not yet be included in the official records.
Wednesday's data included seven deaths over four previous days among patients who tested positive for coronavirus at Northampton.
And yesterday, one death was confirmed by Kettering General Hospital — the only fatality since last Tuesday (June 16).
NGH has seen 290 Covid-19 victims since the first deaths in the county on March 16 while 211 have died at Kettering and a further 127 deaths related to coronavirus have been identified by the Care Quality Commission in Northamptonshire's care homes up to June 19.
That takes the combined total of known Covid-19 victims in the county so far to 627.
Numbers of new cases are also falling in Northamptonshire but the county's health chief warns there is still a "significant risk" of new infections.
The average number of fresh positive coronavirus tests for the killer bug during the last 14 days is now around 6.3 per day, according to Government figures, compared to nearly12 just over a fortnight ago.
But Northamptonshire's Director of Public Health, Lucy Wightman said: “Whilst there are increasing signs of normality returning, we must remember that the virus continues to be in circulation and the risk posed by local outbreaks remains significant.
"Following social distancing and other infection prevention and control guidelines gives us the best chance of keeping the virus transmission under control."
Yesterday's Public Health England announcement put the number of positive tests in the county at 1,683 after a rise of five in the 24-hour period up to 9am on Thursday.
A mobile testing unit is set up in Northampton until tomorrow (Saturday) and those with symptoms can book appointments using the Government website.