Four more Covid-linked deaths recorded today in Milton Keynes despite infections dropping

The number of positive tests in Milton Keynes was just 68 today, brings the city's total to 17 779 since the start of the pandemic .

But over the past seven days there have been 54 Covid-linked deaths at the hospital, care homes and in the community. All are people who died within 28 days of having a positive test, and it brings MK's sad death toll to 398.

The MK case rate today stands at 302.5 cases per 100,000 people, the lowest it has been for many weeks. But it is still higher than the England average of 269.1.

Milton Keynes hospital still has 178 Covid patients, eight of whom are on ventilations.

Nationally there were 19,202 new Covid cases over the past 24 hours and 1,322 deaths, bringing the UK's total death toll to 109,335.

Government figures show more than 10 million people have now had their first dose of Covid vaccine and 498, 962 of them have also had the second dose.