WARRINGTON Hospital’s coronavirus death toll has passed 250.

Five more patients have died at the Lovely Lane site after testing positive for Covid-19, bringing the total number of deaths since the start of the pandemic to 252.

At present, Warrington and Halton Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is treating 145 people for the virus – including 13 who are in intensive care.

A total of 832 inpatients have been discharged after receiving care so far.

The trust has carried out 39,807 tests to date, 2,791 of which returned a positive result.

Warrington now has the 137th highest rate of infection in England, and will be placed into tier two measures once the current national lockdown is ended next week.

In the seven days leading up to November 21, the most recent date for which Public Health England has published statistics, there were 411 fresh cases in the town – or 195.6 for every 100,000 residents.

By comparison, in the same period before November 14 there were 603 confirmed cases – 287.1 per 100,000.