David Wood blog: Coronavirus deaths and cases in the West Country
By Political Correspondent David Wood
As we start our fifth week in lockdown the West Country has the fewest number of Coronavirus patients in hospital than any other part of Great Britain as well as the fewest number of people who've tested positive for the virus.
According to the latest figures from NHS England 691 patients who've tested positive for Covid-19 have now died in the West Country's hospitals. That's an increase of 19 deaths compared to Sunday (19 April), the smallest increase for nine days.
It is likely that there could be a small lag in some of the reporting over the weekend which could be why the figure is low, however it does also suggest a trend of the numbers beginning to go in the right direction.
In the last day (20 April) there have been no new recorded deaths in hospitals in Dorset or Somerset.
The overall number of deaths in the West Country is likely to be higher because these are only the numbers of people who have died in hospital, up to date numbers for the amount of people who've passed away with Coronavirus symptoms at home or in care homes haven't been released yet.
In terms of cases of the infection as of this afternoon 4,861 people in the West Country have tested positive for Covid-19, that is an increase of 192 since yesterday.
There has though been a fall in the number of people in hospitals tonight with the virus (the West Country is the light blue line on the graph).
The region is the only one in Great Britain that has fewer than a thousand Coronavirus patients in hospital and indeed the only region to always have had less than a thousand patients in hospital at any one time.