NO new coronavirus-related deaths have been recorded by St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust for the fifth day running.

At the latest count, zero deaths were recorded by the trust, which runs Whiston, St Helens and Newton Hospitals.

The figures are updated every day by NHS England and NHS Improvement and include confirmed death cases reported at 5pm the previous day.

The last death that was linked to COVID-19 to be recorded at the trust was on Saturday, when one death was included in the daily figures.

Since the start of the outbreak, 194 people have died at the trust after testing positive for COVID-19.

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 as the deaths make their way through the system.

Across the country, a further 115 people who tested positive for the COVID-19 have died.

Patients were aged between 26 and 100 years old.  Five of the 115 patients, aged between 53 and 97, had no known underlying health condition.

In addition, 19 deaths were reported where there was no positive COVID-19 test result but where COVID-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.

Today’s update brings the total number of confirmed reported deaths in hospitals in England to 27,159.

The daily NHS figures do not include deaths outside hospital, such as those in care homes or in private homes.

NHS England and NHS Improvement do not publish recovery figures.