THE number of deaths from Covid-19 in Hampshire has been marked down today.

The death toll had been 728 for more than a week but figures published this afternoon said it was now 727, down one. The reason was unavailable.

New cases of coronavirus continue to rise sharply although not as fast as yesterday, in both Winchester and Hampshire.

The figure reported in the last 24 hours in the county council area has risen by 115 (151 yesterday) from 6,667 to 6,782 and in Winchester district from 645 to 655, up ten (21). The current infection rate in the city council district is 524.6 people in every 100,000.

There have been 87 new cases in the Winchester district in the last seven days, up from yesterday's rolling seven-day total of 84.

In the previous week, ending on Friday October 2, the number was 25, (up from 20), so an increase week on week of more than 200 per cent.

There have been three reported cases at Winchester University.

Several local schools are now affected but all remain open: Kings' secondary, Bishop's Waltham Junior, The Westgate secondary and St Bede primary.

But Stockbridge primary has closed after three cases were reported. It was shut today and yesterday but according to the county council website would appear to be due to reopen on Monday.

No new deaths have been reported in Winchester district, Portsmouth, Southampton or the Hampshire County Council area in the last 24 hours.

Nationally, 87 deaths have been reported in the UK today, bringing the number of confirmed reported deaths to 42,679, according to the ONS website.

Today the rate of infection in Hampshire stands at 490.5 cases per 100,000 people, far lower than the England average, 873.1. The Winchester rate is higher than the county but much lower than nationally.

There have been 575,679 cases of the virus across the UK. This is an increase of 13,864 in the last 24 hours, down on the 17,540 in the previous 24 hours.

The number of deaths in Hampshire hospitals remains at 617. The figure for fatalities at the Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which includes the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester, is 162. For the other local county trusts, Portsmouth Hospital, 236; Solent, 2; Southern Health, 17; University Southampton, 200.

But the R number in the south-east has risen to between 1.2 and 1.4 meaning that on average every 10 people infected will infect between 12 and 14 other people.

The growth rate in the south east region is now between +2% and +7%, meaning the number of new infections is growing by up to 7% every day, an increase of one per cent

Regarding Covid patients admitted to hospital the numbers continue to rise steadily.

The latest figure is 41, up 16, reported on Wednesday in the south-east region, that includes Hampshire. There are today (Friday) 159 with the condition in hospital today, up 19 on yesterday (Thursday), with 10 on ventilators today, down two, according to the ONS. The numbers are not broken down for hospitals in Hampshire.

Total number of deaths since the start of the pandemic of people who had had a positive test result for Covid-19 and died within 28 days of the first positive test, remains: Hampshire, 727 (52.6 per 100,000 people), Portsmouth, 79 (36.8) and Southampton, 123 (48.7). The Winchester district figure, the city council area, is 77, a rate of 61.7, higher than the other three areas mentioned.

Other coronavirus news:

A Winchester secondary school reports a second case.

Read more here