A FURTHER ten deaths from Covid-19 have been recorded at the trust which runs Colchester Hospital.

The latest NHS England figures show a total of 1,098 deaths have been recorded in hospitals run by East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust.

Yesterday’s figures have yet to be released.

It means there have been 64 deaths in the past week, down from 70 the previous week.

The victims were among 9,403 deaths recorded across the East of England.

Daily death counts are revised each day with each case backdated to the actual date of death.

NHS England states: “Confirmation of Covid-19 diagnosis, death notification and reporting in central figures can take up to several days and the hospitals providing the data are under significant operational pressure.”

Nationwide, Covid-19 cases have dropped by 80 per cent since the start of January with 13,308 cases reported on Saturday.

Hospital admissions have also reduced by 60 per cent with a 50 per cent decrease in people in hospital with the virus, epidemiologist Professor Tim Spector said yesterday.

But despite the fall in cases, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has rejected calls from Conservative MPs to put a date on when England’s lockdown measures will be eased, saying the Government will be “cautious”.

Mr Raab told the BBC he was “confident” in the vaccine rollout, but added: “You can’t get ahead of the evidence.”

Today the Government hit its target of vaccinating 15 million people in what Sir Simon Stevens, the chief executive of the NHS, said it had been “the fastest and largest vaccination campaign in history”.

The vaccine rollout has already been officially extended to people aged 65 to 69 and younger people who are in an at-risk group.

Some under 65s have also been vaccinated in parts of north Essex and the number of vaccinations is being ramped up with centres at Colchester Hospital, Colchester United’s Jobserve Stadium, Clacton Hospital and the Fryatt Hospital in Dovercourt.

Full details of who will be vaccinated in the next phase of the programme involving the over 50s and people with underlying health conditions will be set out from next week.

Prime Minster Boris Johnson is due to set out the roadmap out of restrictions next Monday.

Among the measures he is due to announce are the re-opening of schools from March 8.

He is under pressure from the lockdown-sceptic Covid Recovery Group which says he should set out a plan for “a return to normal life” from that date.

The CRG has called for pubs and restaurants to open by Easter in a “Covid-secure” and “commercially viable” way, saying two-thirds of the people in the top nine priority groups should have had a first vaccine dose by then.

And by the end of the April, when all the priority groups should have had one jab of vaccine, they say all lockdown laws should be removed.

Mr Raab said: “We share all of the ambition and the desire to get out of this lockdown. We want to do it responsibly and safely and therefore it’s got to be based on the evidence.”

Prof Steven Riley, a member of the scientific modelling group which advises government, said if the government relaxed all restrictions, there could be another wave of infections.