NO new cases of coronavirus have been recorded in St Helens for the second successive day, the latest official figures show.

Public Health England figures show that the number of people had been confirmed as testing positive for COVID-19 by 9am Thursday morning (May 28) in St Helens since the start of the outbreak remains at 752.

A week before, there were 744 cases.

The stable number of cases in St Helens contrasts with across the UK as a whole, where the rate of increase was one per cent between 9am on Wednesday and Thursday.

They were among the 25,338 cases recorded across the North West, a figure which rose by 78 over the period.

Cumulative case counts include patients who are currently unwell, have recovered and those that have died.

On Thursday, three more people were confirmed to have died at St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust after contracting coronavirus.

The latest NHS figures show that two people died on Tuesday, May 26 and another died on Wednesday, May 27.

Since the outbreak began, 192 deaths linked to COVID-19 have been recorded by the trust, which runs Whiston, St Helens and Newton hospitals.

Across the UK, 269,127 people had tested positive for coronavirus as of 9am on Thursday, up from 267,240 at the same point on Wednesday, Department of Health and Social Care figures show. As of 5pm on Wednesday, 37,837 people had died.