Virus ends 40th Great North Run

Sunderland’s hospital trust has now gone a week without any new coronavirus-related deaths.

Figures released yesterday, by NHS England show no further fatalities in the South Tyneside and Sunderland hospital trust for the seventh consecutive day.

The trust last reported a death relating to the illness on Monday, June 8, and the total number of deaths at the trust remains at 323.

Across the North East, there was just one additional death announced yesterday, in the North Tees and Hartlepool trust area.

A further 28 people who tested positive for COVID-19 have died in hospital in England, taking the total number of confirmed deaths in hospitals in England to 27,982, NHS England said.

Patients were aged between 59 and 100 and all had underlying health conditions.

Figures released yesterday show nine new cases across the North East, bringing the total to 10,446.

However, none of those are in Sunderland, with its case figure remaining static at 1,386, which gives a rate of 499.6 cases per 100,000 people.

The latest figures put it as the third highest of all England’s large upper-tier authorities and the seventh highest in the country, if smaller local council areas are taken into account.

Yesterday’s figures have seen South Tyneside overtake it by one place.

It has reported two new cases, while Darlington has three, County Durham has two and North Tyneside and Gateshead reporting one each.