Shropshire Star

Shropshire coronavirus death toll reaches 293

Another coronavirus death has been confirmed in Shropshire, taking the county's death toll to 293.

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The cumulative number of coronavirus deaths in Shropshire hospitals by date of death as of June 5. Data: NHS England. Figures likely to increase as further deaths announced

A patient in the care of Shropshire Community Health Trust was today confirmed by NHS England to have died after contracting Covid-19.

It means that 170 people have now died in Shropshire hospitals after catching the virus.

Of these 151 have died at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, 14 at Shropshire Community Health Trust and five at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital near Oswestry.

Daily number of coronavirus deaths in Shropshire hospitals by date of death as of June 5. Data: NHS England. Figures likely to increase as further deaths announced

Government figures also show that 123 people have now died with Covid-19 in the county's care homes. However these figures are only available from April 10 to May 29 suggesting the true death toll is higher.

The most recent figures for Powys show 84 people have died with the virus in the county – 44 in the county's care homes.

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Meanwhile the UK-wide death toll released by the Government, which includes deaths in and out of hospital, increased by 357 to 40,261 today although analysis suggests the true death toll is closer to 50,000.

The death toll in English hospitals increased by 123 to 27,282 and the Welsh death toll increased by 4 to 1,383.

Meanwhile the Government’s scientific advisers believe the rate of coronavirus transmission has not breached the crucial value of one, despite evidence it is very close in some regions.

They acknowledged there might be some places in England where the ‘R value’ is close to one, which if exceeded could see the virus spread exponentially.

The Government’s value remained between 0.7 and 0.9 for the UK as a whole, though the figure has a two to three week lag, meaning it does not account for the latest easing of the lockdown.

And a report from Public Health England and Cambridge University, which estimates what the value is currently, said R is close to one in the North West and South West.

The research warned that there is some evidence the value has risen in all regions, saying it was probably due to increasing mobility and mixing between households and in public and work settings.

The R value is the average number of people an infected individual passes the virus onto and crucially, if that figure exceeds one, the disease could rapidly spread throughout the population again.

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