North East sees seven more deaths of Covid-19 patients

A FURTHER seven people have died after testing positive for Covid-19 in North East hospitals.

New figures for hospital deaths from NHS England show 183 people have died with the coronavirus in the last 24 hours.

That brings the total number of deaths in English hospitals to 26,049.

Of the 183 newly reported deaths, 24 occurred on May 26, 64 occurred on May 25 and 28 occurred on May 24.

The figures also show 55 of the new deaths took place between May 15 and May 23, nine took place in April and the remaining three occurred in March with the earliest on March 21.

NHS England releases updated figures each day showing the dates of every coronavirus-related deaths in hospitals in England, often including previously uncounted deaths that took place several days or even weeks ago.

This is because of the time it takes for deaths to be confirmed as testing positive for Covid-19, for postmortem examinations to be processed and for data from the tests to be validated. The figures published on Wednesday by NHS England show April 8 continues to have the highest number for the most hospital deaths on a single day, with a current total of 893.

Deaths reported in North East in last 24 hours by trust:

■■County Durham and Darlington - 2

■■Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear - 0

■■Gateshead - 0

■■Northumbria - 0

■■South Tyneside and Sunderland - 1

■■Newcastle - 1

■■North Tees and Hartlepool - 0

■■South Tees - 3

■■Tees Esk and Wear Valleys - 0