ONE further death of coronavirus patients being treated at Sussex hospital trust sites have been confirmed today.

This took the total number of casualties in the county’s hospitals to 586 since the outbreak of the virus. But this figure does not include people who have died outside of hospital such as in care homes.

The death was reported at the Sussex Community Foundation Trust, which now has a total of 15.

No additional deaths were confirmed by the Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust, which is responsible for the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton and the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath - with its overall figure at 133.

No deaths were recorded at sites run by the Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust, which has seen 247 coronavirus patients die after contracting the illness.

The figures for Western Sussex Hospitals Foundation Trust (109) East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust (81) and Sussex Community Foundation Trust (15) remained the same as the day before.

The number of cases also increased incrementally in Sussex.

East Sussex climbed from 721 to 723, while the Brighton and Hove figure rose by five, reaching 449.

The overall number of confirmed cases in West Sussex is now 1,331, the same as the day before, taking the Sussex total to 2,503.

Nationally, there have been 279,856 positive coronavirus tests with 39,728 deaths of patients in all settings.

This marked an increase of 359 in the 24 hours leading up to 9am today.