MORE people who had been diagnosed with coronavirus have died over the last few days in Hampshire.

New figures published yesterday show the county’s death toll has risen and the confirmed number of cases currently sits at 432.

Figures show that a further three deaths were recorded at facilities run by Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which is responsible for the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester, Andover War Memorial Hospital, Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital and Alton Community Hospital.

This brings the trust’s total coronavirus-related death toll to nine.

Two people died on Friday and the third on Saturday.

Official figures do not specify which hospitals the deaths were recorded by.

Despite the number of cases in Southampton rising to 43, University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Southampton General, has not reported any coronavirus-related deaths on Friday or Saturday.

In neighbouring city Portsmouth, total confirmed cases are now at 70.

On Saturday afternoon, QA Hospital announced that a further 13 people who had been diagnosed with COVID-19 had died.

The nine men and four women were aged between 51 and 91 and all had underlying health conditions, Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust said.

This takes the total at QA Hospital to 31.

Nationally, there have been 19,522 cases confirmed and 1,228 deaths.

The latest stats, published yesterday afternoon, show an increase of 2,433 cases and 209 deaths within 24 hours.

During the daily coronavirus press conference last night, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Robert Jenrick said “we each have a part to play by staying at home, protecting the NHS and saving lives”.

Dr Jenny Harries, the government’s deputy chief medical officer, said the continued growth of the virus is “dependent on the actions we take as individuals and collectively as a population”.

She confirmed the large rises of deaths in recent days have been expected and reiterated that deaths are expected to continue to rise.

“We actually anticipate our numbers will get worse over the next week, possibly two, and then we are looking to see whether we have managed to push that curve down and we start to see a decline,”added Dr Harries.

“This is not to say we would be in complete lockdown for six months, but as a nation we have to be really, really responsible.”