The death toll for coronavirus patients in Merseyside's hospitals has neared 700 after today's latest update.
A total of 694 people have now died after testing positive for Covid-19 in the various hospitals that cover our region and nearby areas.
Liverpool has been hardest hit by tragedy.
The Alder Hey Children's Hospital has announced a second death in a week today - with another adult being looked after at the children's hospital sadly losing their life.
The city has now recorded 277 Covid-19 deaths across its various hospital trusts, up by nine from yesterday's update.
The city's biggest trust, the Liverpool University Trust - which covers the Royal, Aintree and Broadgreen Hospitals - has registered 258 of those deaths - with eight of the latest deaths occurring across these sites.
The other new death was recorded at the Alder Hey Children's Hospital Trust, taking its total to 2.
While it is essentially a children's hospital, the first death at Alder Hey, recorded earlier this week, was related to one of the adult coronavirus patients in its care.
Today's second death also refers to an adult being cared for at Alder Hey.
Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital and the Walton Centre for neurology, have recorded no new deaths and remain on 12 and 5 respectively.
Wirral is another Merseyside borough that has been hit hard by tragedy during this epidemic.
The borough's main NHS Trust, the Wirral Teaching Hospital Trust, has now recorded 138 deaths - which is up by one in today's update.
St Helens and Knowsley Trust is next - which covers hospitals in St Helens and Whiston - with 124 deaths, a rise of five across both sites in today's latest news.
And the Southport and Ormskirk Trust has seen its total deaths from Covid-19 rise by five to 93 in today's bulletin.
Finally, the Warrington and Halton NHS Foundation Trust now has a total of 62 deaths, up by three in the latest update.
A further 589 people in the UK have died after testing positive for coronavirus.
Today's grim update takes the UK official total of deaths from the virus to 19,797.
While harrowing, today's increase of reported deaths is lower than yesterday’s increase of 763 and the rise of 828 on Tuesday.
The death toll update includes 514 further deaths registered in England, 58 in Scotland and 17 in Wales.
Northern Ireland is yet to release its latest data.
