Government figures show just two new Covid-19 cases in Milton Keynes - despite 20 children and adults from one day nursery testing positive

The government released the figures 20 minutes ago - just half an hour after MK Council issued a statement from its local director of Public Health.

The council statement said 20 children and adults from the private Acorn day nursery at Westcroft had tested positive for Covid-19 over the past week and a half.

Yet the government figures showed a rise of just two cases over the past 24 hours and only a handful of cases since the beginning of June. They say the total number of cases since the start of the pandemic is now 517.

The discrepancy is not only baffling, but has caused confusion over the whole recording system.

Covid-19 swabs tests are recorded by the specimen date, which is the date the test sample was taken. This means there will be delay between the sample being taken and the test result, so figures can be delayed.

"But in this case, the local council has been told the tests are positive, so the the swabs must have been taken some days ago.. Why are they not appearing on the official figures? I don't understand it and I don't think I trust it any more," said one parent.

On a happier note, once again there have been no Covid-19 deaths at MK hospital recorded over the past 24 hours.

Nationally the number of deaths recorded since yesterday was 149. The number of new lab-confirmed cases has almost doubled over the past 24 hours to 1,118.

The UK death toll now stands at 43,230.