NEW figures have revealed at least 17 people who had coronavirus have died in St Helens care homes.
Data gathered by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) was published on Tuesday by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
It is the first time CQC death notifications for suspected or confirmed COVID-19 in care homes have been published.
It showed that, between April 10 and April 24, a total of 51 people died in care homes in St Helens.
Of those 51 deaths, 17 were recorded as being related to COVID-19.
Meanwhile, three more people have died at St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust after contracting coronavirus.
The latest NHS data shows that two people died at the trust on Monday, April 27 and one person on Tuesday, April 28.
This means the trust, which runs Whiston, St Helens and Newton hospitals, has now registered 145 coronavirus-related deaths.
At the latest count, a further 445 people who tested positive for COVID-19 have died, bringing the total number of confirmed reported deaths in hospitals in England to 19,746.
Patients were aged between 14 and 101 years old.
Out of the 445 patients, 27 of them, aged between 14 and 94 years old, had no known underlying health condition.
In addition, 30 people have died in hospitals in England where a positive test result was not received but COVID-19 is mentioned on their death certificate. Only one of those deaths was in the North West.
In St Helens, the coronavirus infection rate has spiked in recent days and is now once again the highest in Merseyside, per 100,000 population.
As of Tuesday, 616 people had tested positive for COVID-19, according to Public Health England.
In Knowsley, which also has one of the highest infection rates in England, there are 511 confirmed cases.
NHS England or St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust do not currently publish recovery figures.
Figures on the number of people who died in hospitals are published by NHS England and the Department for Health and Social Care every day.
On Tuesday, Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced during the daily coronavirus briefing that the government will begin publishing the number of deaths in care homes and other settings, from Wednesday.
Mr Hancock said this will “bring as much transparency as possible” to the data, which up until now has only included hospital deaths.
The move to begin to include deaths outside of hospitals comes as ONS data showed there were 2,000 coronavirus care home deaths in the week ending April 17, double the previous week’s tally.
Mr Hancock said: “From the start we knew that there was a very significant challenge with care homes, not least because of the frailty of the residents.
“And the enormous work that’s gone on within government, Public Health England and the CQC to monitor this from the start, it has been more difficult to get data flowing.
“And I’m glad we can now get that on a daily basis instead of a weekly basis as before.”
The Health Secretary also said testing will be expanded to all care home residents and staff in England, includes those who do not have symptoms.
People over 65 and those who have to leave home for work will also be able to get a test if they are displaying symptoms, he said.
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