One further death from coronavirus have been recorded in the North-East and North Yorkshire.

Latest figures published on Wednesday afternoon confirmed one death was recorded at Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.

The total death recorded stands at 1,730.

A further 50 deaths were recorded in hospitals in England, bringing the total to 28,758.

• The UK must “prepare for the worst” this winter, instead of relying on the development of a successful coronavirus vaccine, an expert has said.

Sir John Bell, regius professor of medicine at Oxford University, told MPs too many assumptions had already been made during the course of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Instead, he said, it would be advisable to prepare for the colder weather, and flu season, without depending on a breakthrough from researchers working on a vaccine.

His comments came in response to Greg Clark, chairman of the Science and Technology Select Committee, who asked if the country should be preparing for the winter without a vaccine, or if one might be ready in time.

Sir John said: “This whole epidemic has relied too heavily on assumptions that have turned out not to be true.

“So, my strong advice is be prepared for the worst.”

• The UK has enough stocks of the drug remdesivir, the Department of Health has confirmed, after the US bought nearly all the manufacturing stock for the next three months.

The Department of Health said it had secured supplies of remdesivir in advance and had enough to treat every NHS patient who needs it.

It comes after the US Department of Health and Human Services (HSS) said it had secured more than 500,000 treatment courses of remdesivir for American hospitals.

This represents 100% of the US pharmaceutical firm Gilead’s projected production for July (94,200 treatment courses), 90% of production in August (174,900 treatment courses), and 90% of production in September (232,800 treatment courses), alongside an allocation for clinical trials.

Remdesivir is an anti-viral drug that was developed for use against Ebola.

It has been approved for use in Covid-19 patients by the US and the UK, among other countries, after data suggested it can cut recovery time by about four days.

However, there is no clinical trial data as yet to suggest it improves survival from coronavirus.

• Officials in regions with high infection rates for coronavirus have said they are working hard not to follow Leicester into lockdown.

Experts in Greater Manchester said its infection rate was falling overall, though some of its 10 councils “have higher infection numbers and rates than others, and compared to the North West and national they are still higher than they should be”.

City officials in Bradford said they were “working hard” to prevent lockdown while Barnsley said new restrictions are not needed, as figures revealed the town has the highest Covid-19 rates in England after Leicester.

• The number of people who have coronavirus immunity could be higher than antibody tests suggest, a new study indicates.

Research from Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital shows that many people with mild or asymptomatic Covid-19 demonstrate so-called T-cell immunity to the disease.

This is even if they have not tested positive for antibodies to the virus.

Marcus Buggert, assistant professor at the Centre for Infectious Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, and one of the paper’s main authors, said: “T-cells are a type of white blood cells that are specialised in recognising virus-infected cells, and are an essential part of the immune system.

“Advanced analyses have now enabled us to map in detail the T-cell response during and after a Covid-19 infection.

“Our results indicate that roughly twice as many people have developed T-cell immunity compared with those who we can detect antibodies in.”

• Boris Johnson has been accused of being slow to respond to the coronavirus outbreak in Leicester, resulting in the city being forced into a local lockdown.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer accused the Prime Minister of presiding over a “lost week” when action could have been taken in the first real test of Mr Johnson’s “whack-a-mole” strategy for tackling coronavirus clusters.

The Prime Minister insisted that action had been taken swiftly and defended the sharing of testing figures with local leaders.