REAL NUMBER OF VIRUS FATALTIES FOR UK IS 10,000 ABOVE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH FIGURES

WARWICKSHIRE'S CONFIRMED TOTAL UP JUST FIVE AS NORTH WEST IS CURRENT HOT SPOT FOR THOSE TESTING POSITIVE

ATHERSTONE and North Warwickshire have not recorded any new cases of Covid-19 in the last 24 hours while across the other side of the world America hit the grimmest of milestones – 100,000 deaths.

The official total of 187 lab-confirmed cases comes out of an additional 24 reported across neighbouring local authorities.

The local district had seen a sharp decline in people testing positive with only eight cases in the previous six days.

Warwickshire saw a total rise of just five to 1,437 cases, with neighbouring Leicestershire on 1,269 (up four) and Staffordshire on 2,207 (an increase of 11).

The Midlands was up 84 to 25,548 while London saw an increase of 22 to 26,840 and the North West a rise of 147 to 25,158.

The UK's total cases now stands at 265,227 – up 4,043.

The death tally is 37,048 – a rise of 134 in the last 24 hours.

But the real toll of fatalities in the UK is more than 47,000, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Combined with the latest ONS stats for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, it means a total of 46,383 have died across the UK.

A further 964 hospital patients in England who had tested positive for Covid-19 died between May 16 and May 24 meaning that the overall UK death toll is just above 47,300.

The ONS total is a third higher than the Department of Health total.

This is because the ONS figures include all mentions of Covid-19 on a death certificate, including suspected cases, and are based on the date that deaths occurred.

The Department of Health figures are based on when deaths were reported, and are for deaths where a person has tested positive for Covid-19.

There have been nearly 54,000 excess deaths in England and Wales since the outbreak began

The ONS figures show that 135,575 deaths were registered in England and Wales between March 21 and May 15, 2020.

This was 53,960 more deaths than the average for this period in the previous five years.

Covid-19 was responsible for three quarters of these excess deaths.

Newly-released figures put the cases of people testing positive in the North Warwickshire district at a rate at 288.4 per 100,00 population.

The statistics are revealed in additional information on 'lower tier' local authorities provided by the Government via the Office for National Statistics more than 100 days since the first case of coronavirus was reported in the UK.

The borough sits fourth out of nine in terms of cases per 100,000 among the neighbouring local council areas bordering Atherstone.

North Warwickshire's case rate per 100,000 population is higher than the Warwickshire figure of 251.7 and England (268.5) and the West Midlands at 281.9. The UK figure of 390.9 per 100,000 population is bumped up by a Welsh rate of 431.9.

Close neighbours Nuneaton and Bedworth now top the cases per 100,000 table for authorities around Atherstone's North Warwickshire borough –at 316.5. It has recorded a total of 408 Covid cases.

With the inclusion of population, recorded cases and rate per 100,000 population, the full table of authorities which have a boundary touching North Warwickshire reads:

Nuneaton & Bedworth (pop 128,902): Cases 408 at rate of 316.5 cases per 100,000;

Solihull (population 214,909): Cases 665, at rate of 309.4 cases per 100,000;

Birmingham (pop 1.08 million): Cases 3,425 at rate of 300.1cases per 100,000;

North Warwickshire (pop 64,850): Cases 187, at rate of 288.4 cases per 100,000;

Lichfield (pop 103,965:) Cases: 285, at rate of 274.1 cases per 100,000;

Tamworth (pop 76,678 ): Cases 179, at rate of 233.4 cases per 100,000;

Coventry (pop 325,949): Cases 809, at rate of 220.6 cases per 100,000;

Hinckley & Bosworth (pop 112,423): Cases 240, at rate of 213.5 cases per 100,000; and

North West Leicestershire (pop 102,126): Cases 153, at rate of 149.8 cases per 100,000.

Eight people in Atherstone have lost their lives to the virus, putting the town at a current rate of 75 deaths per 100,000, according to the Office for National Statistics, with only Birmingham above on 78.

The figures are relevant for coronavirus deaths between March 1 and April 17.

North Warwickshire, which finds itself surrounded by no fewer than eight other adjoining Midland authorities, has recorded 24 deaths in that timescale – with an ONS mortality rate of 35 per 100,000.

In Warwickshire, there were 397 coronavirus-related deaths up to the May 8. In this area a quarter of all deaths involved coronavirus between the end of February and May 8.

The US leads the world in the one table no one wants to head up – on 100,103 fatalities and with 1.71 million people testing positive.

The death tally across the globe from coronavirus stands at nearly 350,000. More than 2.41 million have recovered worldwide out of 5.64 million recorded cases.