Four more coronavirus deaths confirmed in Shropshire as UK death toll passes 19,000
A further four people have been confirmed to have died with coronavirus in Shropshire.
All four patients were in the care of Shrewsbury & Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) and died after testing positive for Covid-19, NHS England confirmed today.
It takes the total who have now died at the trust, which manages Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Princess Royal Hospital Telford, to 67 since the outbreak began. Across Shropshire the figure is now 73.
Meanwhile the UK-wide figure increased by 684 to 19,506 and the figure in England increased by 587 to 17,373. In Wales the death toll increased by 110 to 751.
As well as the 67 deaths at SaTH, four people have died in the care of Shropshire Community Health Trust and two at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital near Oswestry.
Of the Shropshire patients included in today's figures, one died yesterday, two on Wednesday, and another on Tuesday.
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The figures were released as a doctor from Royal Shrewsbury Hospital thanked his colleagues for their "incredible care" as he fought for his life during his ordeal with the virus.
Dr Hamza Ansari, who is now recovering at home, described fearing he would die alone due to his family being in Canada and unable to visit him.
Meanwhile the Government’s Covid-19 testing website was overwhelmed as it opened to new bookings on Friday, with home testing kits running out in the first two minutes of the site going live.
Up to 10 million key workers and their households in England are now eligible for coronavirus tests if they have symptoms as the Government races to hit its 100,000-a-day testing target by next Thursday.
Under the expansion, NHS and social care staff, police officers, teachers, social workers, undertakers, journalists and those who work in supermarkets and food production are among those now eligible.
