THE lives of 200 people have now been lost in local hospitals after contracting coronavirus.

NHS figures released today showed that two patients died at St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust on Sunday, June 7.

This means the trust, which runs Whiston, St Helens and Newton hospitals, has registered the deaths of 200 people who tested positive for COVID-19 since the start of the outbreak.

The grim milestone has been reached following a slow-down in the number of deaths and infections in recent weeks.

Sue Forster, director of Public Health for St Helens, said the published death numbers have reduced to weekly levels similar to the five-year seasonal average.

But today’s NHS figures are a stark reminder of the amount of people locally who have lost their lives – either directly or indirectly – as a result of COVID-19.

The death figures are published every day by NHS England and NHS Improvement, but do not include those deaths outside hospital, such as those in care homes or in private homes.

Separate data provided by St Helens Council show that 76 deaths have been linked to coronavirus in the borough’s care homes since the start of the outbreak.

Across the UK, 40,597 people have died after testing positive for COVID-19, according to the governmen’t own figures.

However, figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) today show that 46,421 deaths have been linked to COVID-19 in England and Wales in the week up to May 29.

When combined with Scotland and Northern Ireland, the total stands at 51,089.

At the latest count, a further 129 people who tested positive for the COVID-19 have died in hospitals in England.

In addition 14 deaths where reported COVID-19 was mentioned on the death certificate but there the person had not tested positive for the disease.

Three of the 129 patients, aged between 78 and 93, had no known underlying health conditions.

The youngest person to die was 26, while the oldest was and 100.

Today’s figures bring the total number of confirmed reported deaths in hospitals in England to 27,619.

The North West also registered the highest number of deaths, with 32 out of the 129.

This comes after analysis from Public Health England last Friday showed the coronavirus reproduction number, or the R value, had risen to above 1 in the North West.

Speaking in the House of Commons this afternoon, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson moved to reassure schools, particularly in the North West, who are concerned about rates of transmission.

“I can assure them that Sage’s R estimate for the whole of the UK is below one,” Mr Williamson said.

“If robust data shows that local action needs to be taken, we will not hesitate to do so.”

The figures published by NHS England and NHS Improvement 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, meaning reported deaths may have occurred several days or event weeks prior to them being reported.

NHS England and NHS Improvement do not publish recovery figures.