JUST 15 MILES FROM BIRMINGHAM WHICH SITS AT THE TOP OF THE LOCAL AUTHORITY LEAGUE TABLE FOR MOST CASES IN THE UK.

ATHERSTONE is right in the middle of a continuing "non-flattening" coronavirus curve as the Midlands recorded a higher coronavirus death toll than London on Friday.

Ministers said preparations for the new Nightingale hospital for the region will be "accelerated" as NHS England said 212 people diagnosed with Covid-19 died in the Midlands in the 24 hours to 5pm yesterday.

A total of 637 people died in England over that period, including 127 in London.

Warwickshire has seen its cases triple in eight days from 113 to 302.

Speaking at the daily Number 10 press conference on Saturday, Michael Gove labelled the Midlands "a particular area of concern" and said "the NHS and the military are accelerating their existing work to transform the National Exhibition Centre into a 2,000-bed Nightingale hospital".

There have been 5,537 confirmed cases of the virus against London's 10,247 – but Birmingham is in top spot for most infected people in a league table of upper tier local authorities – at 1,138.

New cases of coronavirus appear to have stabilised but it is not the time to "take our foot off the pedal", a healthcare chief has said, as ministers pleaded with the public to obey social distancing rules despite the warm weather.

Professor Stephen Powis, NHS England's national medical director, made the warning as the latest figures showed the recorded death toll from the virus in the UK has risen above 4,000, including a five-year-old child.

The Department of Health said the number of coronavirus-related hospital deaths stood at 4,313 as of 5pm on Friday, up from 3,605 the day before – an increase of 708.

Speaking alongside Michael Gove at the daily Downing Street press conference, Prof Powis said: "The new cases in the UK have continued to rise but in the last few days they have stabilised."

NHS England said the latest victims were aged between five and 104, and 40 had no known underlying health condition, ranging in age from 48 to 93.

In addition to the Midlands deaths, London has 127 in the last 24 hours, the North West 97 deaths, the North East and Yorkshire 73, the East of England 70, the South East 41 and the South West 17.

The figures came after Professor Neil Ferguson, one of the Government's scientific advisers, said earlier that while the epidemic was expected to plateau in the next week to 10 days, people's behaviour was critical to determining what happens next.

And Prof Powis added: This is not the time to be complacent and to take our foot off the pedal.

"We need to continue to comply with those instructions because that will translate in the next week or two into a reduction in hospital admissions."

The stay-at-home calls came as: Boris Johnson's pregnant fiancee Carrie Symonds said she had spent the last week in bed suffering coronavirus symptoms, but was "on the mend".

Across the world it was America and New York which again grabbed the grim headlines.

The US had 35,000 new cases in 24 hours – passing the 300,000 mark tonight.

The confirmed case total is 300,320 – almost a third of the 1,182,308 global total, which itself was up 110,000 in a day.

Deaths in the US are up from 6,786 to 8,162.

New York recorded 10,228 new cases to 113,704 with total deaths up to 3,565.

Spain has more recorded cases than Italy now while France's cases leapt by 30,000 in two days with the death toll rising by 2,400 in the same timeframe.