Number of Covid-19 cases heading towards 200 with 14 deaths in Northamptonshire in less than a month

The official number of known Covid-19 cases in Northamptonshire is set to top 200 today.

Public Health England's latest figures issued yesterday (Wednesday April 1) revealed 187 people have now tested positive — a rise of 17 in the 24-hour period to 9am yesterday — with 14 deaths reported since the outbreak hit the county on March 3.

But experts admit the true number of people who have contracted the virus is much higher since only patients already in hospital are currently being tested.

A peak in the UK epidemic is predicted in the next two or three weeks and NHS planners are rushing to free up hospital beds in Northampton and Kettering ahead of an expected surge in Covid-19 patients.

The county's Strategic Coordination Centre has cleared nearly 400 of the 1,400 beds in the two hospitals in a joint effort between the NHS, local councils and emergency services working alongside voluntary, charity and private sector partners.

Patients who are well enough have been discharged to free up hospital space.

These have either returned home or have transferred to local care homes or into the care of NHS community services.

Kettering General Hospital revealed yesterday that four more patients in their care had died between March 23 and March 31 while Northampton General have announced seven deaths in the last three days.

Across the UK, another 563 people died in the 24-hour period before 5pm on Tuesday, bringing the total number nationwide to 2,352

The rise is the UK's biggest day-on-day increase so far. In England there were 486 more deaths — a total of 2,137. The latest Covid-19 patients to die in England were aged between 13 and 99 years old, with 20 of the victims having no known underlying health condition, including the 13-year-old.

A Kettering General Hospital spokesman confirmed the latest four to die were all in their 70s or 80s but neither of the county's two acute hospitals did not release any further details regarding coronavirus-releated deaths.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper when you do your weekly shop.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspaper.

Thank you.