A FURTHER 25 people who tested positive for coronavirus have died in Hampshire in the last day.

New figures from the NHS have revealed that the total number of deaths in Hampshire has gone up from 301 to 326 in 24 hours.

They cover the University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust (UHS), Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust.

At UHS, a total of 87 people who tested positive for COVID-19 have died to date - an increase of eleven since yesterday.

Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the Queen Alexandra Hospital in Cosham, has recorded 145 deaths up by nine from 136 at the same time yesterday.

A total of 86 people who were diagnosed with the virus have died at Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, with a rise of five in the last 24 hours.

The trust handles Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester, Andover War Memorial Hospital, Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital and Alton Community Hospital.

A total of eight people who tested positive for the virus have died Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust, which has not changed in the last 24 hours.

A total of 14,576 patients have died in hospital after testing positive for coronavirus in the UK as of 5pm on Thursday.

According to the Department of Health, this is an increase of 847 from 13,729 the day before.

Meanwhile, a leading physician has warned that Britain will face “further waves” of Covid-19 and will probably have the highest death rate in Europe because the Government was “too slow” to act.

Professor Anthony Costello, of University College London’s Institute for Global Health, told a committee of MPs that the “harsh reality” is that “we were too slow with a number of things”.

He has warned that the total number of UK deaths could reach 40,000.

Prof Costello said: “If we’re going to suppress the chain of transmission of this virus in the next stage we all hope that the national lockdown and social distancing will bring about a large suppression of the epidemic so far - but we’re going to face further waves. And so we need to make sure that we have a system in place that cannot just do a certain number of tests in the laboratory, but has a system at district and community level.”

Prof Costello, giving evidence to the Commons Health and Social Care Committee, said we “should not have any blame at this stage” but that “we can make sure in the second wave we’re not too slow”.