THREE more people have died at St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust after testing positive for coronavirus, bringing the death toll to 180.

The latest NHS figures show that one person died at the trust on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

It is the first time since Sunday that any deaths linked to coronavirus have been reported at the trust, which runs Whiston, St Helens and Newton hospitals.

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Today’s update means that, since the start of the outbreak, 180 people have died at the trust after testing positive for coronavirus.

The hospital death toll figures are updated every day and include confirmed death cases reported at 5pm the previous day.

Cases are only included in the data when a positive COVID-19 test result is received, or where COVID-19 is documented as a direct or underlying cause of death on the death certificate.

This results in a lag between a given date of death and the daily death figures for that day.

The figures reported by NHS England and NHS Improvement provides information on all coronavirus-related (suspected and confirmed) deaths in England hospitals.

At the latest count, a further 187 people who tested positive for COVID-19 have died, bringing the total number of confirmed reported deaths in hospitals in England to 25,266.

Patients were aged between 14 and 98 years old.  Six of the 187 patients, aged between 46 and 94, had no known underlying health condition.

In addition, 32 deaths across England – including two in the North West – were registered where there was no positive test result but where COVID-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.

Today’s count also showed that the North West reported the most deaths in England, with 45 people dying after testing positive for COVID-19.

These figures do not include deaths outside hospital, such as those in care homes.

Separate figures released by St Helens Council said 147 people have died from all causes in the borough’s care homes since the start of the outbreak to May 15.

Out of those, 69 of are “suspected” of being related to COVID-19.

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NHS England and NHS Improvement do not publish recovery figures.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service has asked St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust how many people have been discharged from their hospitals after testing positive for COVID-19, but the trust has not yet released this information.