Six new coronavirus deaths in West Sussex as cases top 20,000
It comes as England moves into its third national lockdown
Six more hospital patients in West Sussex have died within 28 days of testing positive for coronavirus, as the number of confirmed cases of the virus in the county reaches 20,000.
The latest figures from NHS England showed the deaths took place at sites run by the Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust over the New Year period.
One took place last Wednesday (December 30th), two more on Thursday (December 31st) and a further three on Saturday (January 2nd).
It brings the total number of deaths recorded at the trust since the start of the pandemic to 171.
The trust runs St Richard's Hospital in Chichester, Worthing Hospital and Southlands Hospital in Shoreham.
In addition, a further 10 deaths have been recorded since Friday at the Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust, which runs health services in Horsham, Crawley and northern West Sussex in addition to parts of Surrey.
A total of 351 people have died there within 28 days of receiving a positive test result.
NHS England's latest update came on the day it was announced that England would be put into a third national lockdown, in an attempt to curb rising infection rates.
The victims were among 5,945 deaths recorded across the South East.
Daily death counts are revised each day, with each case backdated to the actual date of death.
This means some of the deaths that were first recorded in the latest period may actually have taken place days earlier.
NHS England guidance states: "Confirmation of Covid-19 diagnosis, death notification and reporting in central figures can take up to several days and the hospitals providing the data are under significant operational pressure."
In total, 601 deaths have been recorded in West Sussex where people had a positive coronavirus test result for Covid-19 and died within 28 days of the first positive test in all settings, including care homes, private homes and in hospices.
Mid Sussex has seen the most with 151 deaths, followed by Horsham with 119, Crawley with 90, Arun with 78, Worthing with 69, Chichester with 64 and Adur with 30.
As of 9am on Monday morning, 20,602 people had tested positive for coronavirus in West Sussex since the start of the pandemic, including 4,797 in the last seven days.
The rate of infections is 2,384.5 per 100,000 people, below the national average for England (4,157.2) and the South East (3,431.2).
Here's how many people have tested positive for Covid-19 in West Sussex in the last week (figures in brackets show the rate per 100,000 people).
Arun - 1,019 (633.9)
Crawley - 906 (806)
Mid Sussex - 785 (519.8)
Horsham - 663 (461.1)
Worthing - 618 (558.9)
Chichester - 461 (380.6)
Adur - 345 (536.5)
Here's how many people have tested positive for Covid-19 in West Sussex since the start of the pandemic (figures in brackets show the rate per 100,000 people).
Mid Sussex - 4,060 (1,814.3)
Arun - 3,684 (2,291.6)
Crawley - 3,571 (3,176.8)
Horsham - 3,107 (2,160.8)
Chichester - 2,399 (1,980.5)
Worthing - 2,353 (2,128.1)
Adur - 1,428 (2,220.8)