■ Daily virus death toll hits biggest increase

SHOCK NEW FIGURES ALSO SHOW COVID-19 HOSPITAL ADMISSIONS DOUBLE IN A WEEK

AT least 331 people have died at Greater Manchester hospitals having contracting coronavirus.

The region’s death toll has spiked by 52 in the last 24 hours - the biggest day-on-day increase of recorded COVID-19 deaths since the outbreak started, while the number of coronavirus patients being admitted into Greater Manchester hospitals each day has doubled in a week

Yesterday, Bolton NHS Foundation Trust recorded 11 new coronavirusrelated deaths, while Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust announced 10 more.

There were six more deaths at Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, seven more at Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, six more at Stepping Hill and five more at Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust.

There were seven further deaths recorded at Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust.

Meanwhile, Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham raised concerns about potential oxygen shortages as he revealed the number of COVID-19 patients being admitted into the region’s hospitals each day has doubled in a week. At his weekly press conference on the pandemic Andy Burnham referred to a ‘challenging picture’ within the health and social care system here, also noting that 83 care homes have also reported cases so far. But he said bed shortages were ‘not necessarily’ going to be the only concern, instead pointing to oxygen availability, which he said was a ‘growing concern.’

Yesterday Mr Burnham updated journalists after the weekly meeting of Greater Manchester’s senior leaders and officials.

He said they had been provided figures showing the number of people coming into hospital daily with the condition had more than doubled since the last meeting.

“It’s a challenging picture out there. The leaders this morning were given a data update from across the Greater Manchester health and social care system,” he said.

“At last week’s meeting we were told the number of daily hospital admissions for COVID-19 in Greater Manchester was running at around 25 per day.

“As of yesterday that had increased to 52 per day. So that gives you an idea of what is happening across our city region.”

Hospital capacity remains roughly the same as this time last week, however, at around 56pc – with trusts having taken steps to free up more space.

Asked about the number of ventilators currently being used in Greater Manchester hospitals by coronavirus, which this time last week was 31, the mayor said he did not have the figure immediately available.