A FURTHER 14 people have died in hospitals across Lancashire after testing positive for covid-19.

Of those 14 fatalities, half were recorded within facilities operated by the East Lancashire Hospitals Trust, which includes the Royal Blackburn Hospital and Burnley General.

Five died on October 28 with the other two passing away on October 29. A total of 283 deaths have now been reported within the trust since the start of the outbreak.

Four deaths were reported by the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust, two on October 28 and two on October 29, bringing the total there to 218 deaths.

The Southport and Ormskirk Hospital Trust recorded a further three deaths, one on October 27 and two on October 28. There have now been 194 fatalities within the trust.

No new deaths were recorded at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals or Lancashire Teaching Hospitals.

Cases of coronavirus in England have jumped 47 per cent over the last week, according to new data.

The Government said a further 274 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Friday. This brings the UK total to 46,229.

Separate figures published by the UK’s statistics agencies for deaths where Covid-19 has been mentioned on the death certificate, together with additional data on deaths that have occurred in recent days, show there have now been 61,000 deaths involving Covid-19 in the UK.

The Government said that, as of 9am on Friday, there had been a further 24,405 lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK. It brings the total number of cases in the UK to 989,745.