Four more coronavirus deaths confirmed in Black Country, Birmingham and Staffordshire
Four more coronavirus deaths were announced across the Black Country, Birmingham and Staffordshire today, taking the region's hospital death toll to 2,408.
A further 552 people have died with Covid-19 in the region's care homes meaning the latest confirmed death toll in the Black Country, Birmingham and Staffordshire is 2,960.
Meanwhile the UK-wide death toll released by the Government, which includes deaths in and out of hospital, increased by 204 to 40,465.
However it does not include all deaths involving Covid-19 across the UK, which analysis of official figures suggests has passed 50,000.
The death toll in English hospitals increased by 75 to 27,359 today.
Two of the new deaths were announced at the Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Sandwell General and City Hospitals, increasing the toll there to 360.
One more death was confirmed at the University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust, which runs Stafford's County Hospital and Royal Stoke University Hospital, where 314 coronavirus patients have now died.
One death was also confirmed at Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, where 37 people have died with the virus.
The toll in Worcestershire's hospitals also increased by one to 290. At least 153 people have died with the virus in the county's care homes.
No new deaths were announced at the Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust, where 211 patients have died, or at the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, where 275 people have died.
Russells Hall Hospital's death toll of 254 also remained unchanged as did the number of deaths at the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation.
The 925 deaths at the trust, which runs Queen Elizabeth, Heartlands, Good Hope and Solihull Hospitals, is more than any other health trust in the UK.
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The figures released by the NHS each day refer to the number of coronavirus-related deaths confirmed in the previous 24 hours - not who died in the last 24 hours.
Deaths are sometimes not included in the data for some time due to testing or allowing for relatives to be informed.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics show 552 people have died in homes across the Black Country, Birmingham and Staffordshire after catching Covid-19.
However these figures are only available for April 10 to May 29 meaning the true death toll is likely to be far higher.
The first confirmed coronavirus deaths in the region were at Russells Hall Hospital and New Cross Hospital on March 8.
Meanwhile, there are fears over the coronavirus reproduction rate in parts of England as new data suggested the R value is now around one in the North West.
The value used by the Government remained between 0.7 and 0.9 for the UK as a whole, though the figure has a two to three-week lag, meaning it does not account for the latest easing of the lockdown.
But a separate report from Public Health England (PHE) and Cambridge University, which estimates what the value is currently, put the North West on 1.01 and the South West on 1.00.
The rate in the West Midlands is thought to be at 0.9.
