Four more coronavirus deaths confirmed as Shropshire toll reaches 66
Four more coronavirus patients have been announced to have died in Shropshire, taking the total number of deaths in the county's hospitals to 66.
Today's figures show that two more people have died at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH), taking the total number of coronavirus deaths there to 61.
Two more patients were also confirmed to have died in the care of Shropshire Community Health Trust.
It means three people have died at the trust which runs community hospitals in Bridgnorth, Ludlow, Whitchurch and Bishop's Castle and a health centre in Oswestry.
It came as England saw its lowest daily increase in two weeks with 429 more deaths announced, bringing the total number of confirmed deaths in English hospitals to 14,829.
The UK-wide figures are yet to be released.
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The death figures released each day refer to the deaths of coronavirus patients confirmed in a 24-hour period, and include patients who died several days or weeks ago but whose families had not been informed or who needed further testing.
The true death toll is likely to be far higher due to deaths in the community and care homes not being included in these figures.
Patients were aged between 40 and 101 years old, according to NHS England. 15 of the 429 patients (aged between 49 and 92 years old) had no known underlying health condition.
In Wales, 276 new cases of Covid-19 were reported and nine more suspected coronavirus-related deaths were logged.
It means the cumulative number of suspected deaths reported to Public Health Wales is now 584, with 7,546 confirmed cases. Of these cases, 123 were confirmed in Powys.
The latest figures were released after organisations representing hospital trusts rounded on the Government over its promise of more personal protective equipment to protect workers in the fight against Covid-19.
Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, said there was “relatively low confidence” that a shipment of 400,000 surgical gowns which had been due to arrive in the UK from Turkey on Sunday would make its way into the country on Monday.
He said trusts are being forced into “hand-to-mouth” workarounds, including washing single-use gowns and restricting stocks to key areas.
The NHS Confederation, which represents organisations across healthcare, has also reacted angrily to Government promises of more PPE, saying delays on the shipment from Turkey “makes a difficult situation worse”.
Meanwhile Downing Street has said Boris Johnson is receiving daily updates on the Government’s response to the coronavirus crisis but is not working.
The Prime Minister remains at his country retreat Chequers in Buckinghamshire, where he has been convalescing since being released from hospital a week ago after falling ill with Covid-19.
