No deaths have been recorded in the whole of the south west over the last 24 hours, just a day after it was revealed the region's coronavirus R-number had dropped from being the highest in England to the lowest.

The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) released the latest information for the R-number yesterday, which represents the average rate of infection - in other words, how many people one infected person would pass coronavirus onto.

Last week the South West was said to have a R-rate of between 0.8 and 1.1, but yesterday this had fallen to between 0.6 and 0.9 - the lowest in England.

The overall reproduction number across the UK is now between 0.7 and 0.9, slightly down from between 0.7 and 1 last week.

There remains 593 in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly who have tested positive for coronavirus since the start of March.

Of those, 90 patients have died in hospital - a total which has not risen since June 2.

However, the NHS England figure only covers deaths in hospitals, with the overall total for Cornwall, including in care homes and the wider community, standing at 203 in the latest weekly Office for National Statistics update issued on Tuesday.

Public Health England figures for today show that in the past 24 hours no patients who tested positive for Covid-19 have died.

Nationally, however, a further 71 people who the virus in England have died in hospital - up from 46 yesterday and bringing the total number of confirmed reported deaths in hospitals in the country to 28,292.

Patients were aged between 41 and 95 years old. One patient, aged 68, had no known underlying health conditions.

There were a further eight deaths reported where there had been no positive Covid-19 test result but the virus was recorded as a direct or underlying cause of death.

In today's coronavirus news:

Holiday parks and hotels in Cornwall could be asked to closed to contain coronavirus outbreaks.

With the hospitality industry hoping that the government could allow businesses to reopen in July public health officials have been drawing up plans to tackle local outbreaks if they occur.

Read more.

Tourism and hospitality businesses in Cornwall have joined forces to call on the government to announce when they can reopen.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson previously announced that it was his aim to allow hospitality businesses to start reopening from July 4, but with just over a fortnight until that date, no indication has yet been given as to when restrictions could be lifted.

Read more.

A mobile coronavirus testing centre has been opened up in Falmouth.

Testing began at the Falmouth Rugby Club home ground in Tregenver Road on Thursday and will continue until further notice.

Read more.

A new feature is being rolled out to Apple iPhone devices across the UK to help in the fight against coronavirus.

The sighting comes days after the UK Government abandoned plans for its own test and trace app, opting to use technology created by Apple and Google.

Read more.