GOVERNMENT CUTS GRIM TALLY BY 5,377 AFTER URGENT REVIEW ON DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH STATS

BENCHMARK FOR VIRUS FATALITIES NOW INVOLVES 28-DAY WINDOW OF INCLUSION FROM TESTING POSITIVE

ATHERSTONE may never know its true number of Covid-19 victims after the Government slashed the official death toll by more than 5,000 yesterday.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced a downward revision of the grim tally from 46,706 to 41,329 – a cut of 11.5 per cent.

But the Department of Health is still currently showing the higher figure and it is not known how, or if, it will be possible to translate the dramatic reduction of 5,377 individually across England's local authorities.

At it stands, Atherstone's number of victims to the end of June was 15 against a 'current' borough total of 87 and a Warwickshire figure of 538.

If there was a percentage reduction applied across the board, Athestone and North Warwickshire's fatalities would fall by 10 to 77.

Mr Hancock's announcement came after an urgent review was ordered by the Government when scientists stumbled on a "flaw" in how the stats were formulated.

They discovered anyone who tests positive for coronavirus and later dies – whatever the timespan in between – is currently included in the Public Health England numbers.

From now England comes into line with Scotland and Northern Ireland which only counts a fatality as Covid-related in the first 28 days of a person testing positive.

In the last 24 hours there have been 77 deaths recorded in the UK and a further 1,009 new cases of coronavirus reported.

The number people testing positive in Atherstone and North Warwickshire is staying pretty static.

The latest total for number of cases in the borough since the pandemic began is 351 – up one in the last 48 hours – at a rate of 537.8 cases per 100,000 population.

Atherstone has dropped to the bottom of a UK hotspot league table of active cases with the town and district finding itself the Midlands current back marker for people predicted to have the symptomatic virus – with none recorded on the national symptom tracker.

A week ago that figure stood at 1,446 active cases per million cases on the national Covid-19 Symptom tracker app. Neighbouring Nuneaton and Bedworth was yesterday still in the top tier between 1,000 and 5,000 cases per million leading the regional field on 1,146 active cases per million population.

Warwickshire's total number of cases since March now stand at 2,643 -– up 12 in the last 48 hours – with a rate per 100,000 of 457.3.

The global death toll from the world's 20 million cases is 747,327 and the UK remains in fifth place behind India, Mexico, Brazil and the US which tops the league table no one wants to head with 169,131 Covid-19 victims.

Meanwhile, the Atherstone-based North Warwickshire Borough Council, supported by Warwickshire County Council and the Ministry of Defence, is determined to keep the lid on the spread of the virus – with the arrival of a mobile testing unit this weekend to facilitate a "quick response" to local outbreaks.

The borough council and public car parks in Woolpack Way, Atherstone, have been designated the MTU site for a two-day operation on Sunday, August 16 and Monday, August 17. The car parks will be closed to the public on those days.