NO new deaths at Royal Bolton Hospital have been linked to coronavirus for the second day.

Figures released by NHS England yesterday afternoon showed no patients at the borough's hospital had died after contracting covid-19.

The latest statistics came after three new deaths were confirmed on Tuesday, with one death at the hospital connected to coronavirus on Saturday.

A total of 225 people have now died at the borough's hospital, with over 55,000 deaths across the country linked to covid-19.

Overall, 1,824 cases of coronavirus have now been confirmed in Bolton, with over 287,000 people testing positive across the country.

The news came as Boris Johnson said he wanted to achieve the target of all non-postal test results within 24 hours “as soon as we possibly can” after missing his end-of-June deadline.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “We have made significant progress. You can now see 97.5 per cent of in-person test results being returned within the next day and 91 per cent of in-person tests taken at the regional test sites and mobile testing units returned within 24 hours.” But “we need to do more”, the spokesman added.