THE intense challenges that remain at Whiston Hospital during the pandemic have been underlined by figures that show eight new coronavirus-related deaths have been recorded.

Official figures show that 47 deaths have been recorded at St Helens Knowsley NHS Teaching Hospital NHS Trust in the past week, down from 48 the previous week.

Since the start of the pandemic in March, 650 people have died in hospital at St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.

That was an increase of eight compared to Monday, when there were 642.

Daily death counts are revised each day, with each case backdated to the actual date of death.

This means some of the deaths that were first recorded in the latest period may actually have taken place days earlier.

Although there has been a reduction in admissions of Covid-19 patients, the situation at Whiston remains stark, with more patients who have the virus being treated on the hospital's wards than at any time in the first peak last year.

New cases in St Helens are falling but latest figures show the area has the third highest weekly infection rate in the country. Knowsley follows close behind.

Being interviewed on Good Morning Britain last week, Dr Paul Stockton, respiratory medicine consultant, explained the bleak situation.

He said: "Every single death is a tragedy, we are seeing figures in the press but every single one of those deaths is a tragedy where a patient has died and there are relatives that are left without a loved one and what makes it worse is they can’t even see their loved one until they get to the end of their life.

"I think in the first wave, there was much more older people than younger people, I think in the first wave we thought it was an enormous challenge.

"But in the first wave we had 130 patients on this site and we had close to 300 patients the weekend before last.

"The patients are younger, were previously fitter and several patients of those nine patients I mentioned in my video were younger than me, I’m 52.

"We’ve had patients who have died in their 30s, 40s, 50s, it affects everyone.

"It’s crazy, this is why I agreed to do this, people need to see what’s actually happening. The virus is there, we are fighting a war."