Six more coronavirus deaths announced in Black Country and Birmingham
Six more coronavirus deaths have been announced in care homes and hospitals across the region.
Three new deaths were today announced at hospitals in Birmingham and Dudley along with two deaths at care homes in Sandwell and one at a home in Birmingham.
Two people died at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHBT), which runs the Queen Elizabeth, Heartlands, Good Hope and Solihull hospitals.
And one person died at the Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Russells Hall Hospital.
All three patients died on Sunday.
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The latest NHS figures take the total number of Covid-19 patients to have died in the hospitals in the Black Country, Birmingham and Staffordshire to 2,605.
Meanwhile the death toll across the UK, which includes deaths in and out of hospital, increased by 71 to 42,072.
A total of 704 deaths have now been reported in care homes across the region, with weekly figures from the Office for National Statistics revealing two more deaths in Sandwell.
The patients died on September 18 and 25, taking the number of care home deaths in the borough to 52.
And one patient died in a care home in Birmingham on September 23, taking the care home death toll in the city to 194.
In Wolverhampton there have been 71 deaths in care homes, along with 59 in Dudley, 99 in Walsall and 229 in Staffordshire.
This week UHBT, the biggest trust in England, became the first hospital trust in the country to record 1,000 Covid-19 deaths.
A trust spokesman confirmed the figure with "great sadness", adding: "Our thoughts and heartfelt condolences are with the families and friends of those who have suffered losses.
The spokesman said while it did not "mitigate the terrible reality of the number of deaths", the trust could "take some comfort" that 3,000 positive virus inpatients had been discharged from hospital.
Meanwhile the rate of Covid-19 cases in parts of the West Midlands has fallen slightly in recent days.
In Sandwell, where extra lockdown restrictions are in place, the infection rate measured 92.9 per 100,000 people in the seven days up to September 26. It had been 106.3 in the seven days up to September 23.
In Walsall the rate is 65.3 per 100,000, down from 74.8 in the seven days up to September 23.
Another area of intervention, Wolverhampton, currently has a rate of 68.3 per 100,000, with 179 cases recorded over the period.
The current rate in Dudley is 45.2 per 100,000, with 195 recorded infections in the seven days to September 26.
