COVID-19-RELATED deaths in Shropshire fell for the first week in June, according top official Official of National Statistic (ONS) figures released on Tuesday.

There were 12 further deaths where the death certificate recorded Covid-19 as a factor, compared to 38 deaths in the previous two weeks.

Eight of the deaths came in the county's two main hospitals – the Royal Shrewsbury and Princess Royal, in Telford – while three were recorded in care homes, and one person died at home for the week ending June 5.

But England and Wales are still recording excess deaths, with the official number of fatalities linked to Covid-19 for the two nations is now at 47,104.

There were 732 excess deaths – the lowest number of excess deaths since mid-March.

Around 64,500 more people than usual have died during the outbreak in the UK as a whole, an expert from the Office for National Statistics said on Tuesday.

"Across the UK about 52,000 deaths have mentioned Covid with 64,500 'excess' deaths," ONS head of health analysis Nick Stripe tweeted.