Further 53 Covid deaths recorded in the Black Country, Birmingham and Staffordshire

The deaths announced on Friday mean a total of 6,150 patients have died in the region's hospitals after contracting the virus.

A further 1,085 patients have died in the region's care homes since the pandemic began, official figures have shown.

A total of six deaths were announced at the Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust, which runs Sandwell General and City hospitals, where the death toll now stands at 903.

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Four new deaths were confirmed at the Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Russells Hall Hospital, where the total remains 571.

Four deaths were also recorded at the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, which runs New Cross Hospital, where the death toll is now 652.

Meanwhile 14 deaths were announced at the University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust, which runs the main hospitals in Stoke and Stafford, where there has now been 1,184 deaths.

A further 17 deaths were recorded at the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Trust, which runs Queen Elizabeth Hospital, where the overall death toll increased to 2,120.

And seven deaths were confirmed at the Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust, which runs Walsall Manor Hospital, where there have been 571 deaths since the pandemic began.

One death was also confirmed at the Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Trust.

Further afield, nine deaths were announced at the Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust.

A spokesman for NHS said: "A further 744 people, who tested positive for the coronavirus (Covid-19) have died, bringing the total number of confirmed reported deaths in hospitals in England to 70,545.

"Patients were aged between 24 and 101 years old. All except 26 (aged 24 to 96 years old) had known underlying health conditions."

Due to a recording the problem, the Government was yet to update the nationwide death toll at 6pm on Friday. On Thursday the UK death toll stood at 103,126.