A FURTHER four people have died in East Lancashire’s hospitals after testing positive for the coronavirus.

The latest figures released by NHS England show the East Lancashire Hospitals Trust, which operates both the Royal Blackburn Hospital and Burnley General, has now recorded a total of 174 deaths since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The new deaths bring the total of fatalities across the whole county to 803.

However only one other trust in Lancashire has reported any new deaths in the last 24-hours with three new deaths in units operated by the Southport and Ormskirk NHS Foundation Trust.

A total of 133 people have now died within the trust's hospitals.

Elsewhere Lancashire Teaching Hospitals have recorded a total of 175 deaths after reporting no new fatalities for three consecutive days.

The Blackpool University Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has a total of 163 deaths and the Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust has recorded 158.

The UK's coronavirus hospital death toll has increased to 28,996 after 235 more fatalities were reported in total on Wednesday. England reported 166 new deaths, Scotland had 50, Wales recorded 14 and Northern Ireland had five.