A FURTHER nine patients died at Warrington Hospital over the weekend after contracting Covid-19.

Sadly, this brings the coronavirus death toll at Warrington and Halton Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust to 338.

The deaths coincide with a significant rise in the number of Covid-19 patients the hospital is caring for.

As of this afternoon, Monday, the Lovely Lane site is caring for 187 patients that have tested positive for the virus, of which 25 are in intensive care.

This is a jump of 35 since Friday, when 152 patients were receiving treatment for Covid-19, again with 25 in ICU.

To put this into context, this is the highest number of coronavirus-positive patients that the hospital has been caring for since the start of the pandemic.

It eclipses patient numbers at the height of the first wave of the virus on April 12, which reached 124.

To date, the hospital trust has carried out 51,380 coronavirus tests, with 3,808 returning positive.

A total of 27 patients were discharged over the weekend after recovering from the virus, bringing the figure since the start of the pandemic to 1,187.