TWO coronavirus patients have died in Cumbria and the head teacher of a Barrow school has tested positive for the virus.

Public health and police chiefs in the county said the two deaths should be a stark reminder to everybody that “social distancing” is now a life-saving necessity, as they confirmed the sad news yesterday.

There have now been 47 confirmed cases in Cumbria.

Wendy Jacobs, head of Roose Primary School, has been diagnosed with coronavirus and is in intensive care in hospital.

Colin Cox, the county’s director of Public Health, said the true number of cases is likely to be considerably higher than 47 given the limited nature of COVID-19 testing currently being carried out. He said there had been a sombre mood among officials who met to discuss the development at yesterday’s Strategic Coordination Group (SCG) meeting, which brings together several key Cumbrian agencies involved in the coronavirus response including councils, police, and the local NHS.

“It was perhaps an inevitable milestone,” said Mr Cox of the deaths, pointing out that this underlines the critical and continuing importance of people heeding the government’s advice that they should practice “social distancing” to help slow the spread of the virus.

“The whole point of social distancing measures is that it will slow down the virus and allow the NHS to continue to cope,” he explained.

“The two deaths here did not happen as a result of the NHS not being able to cope with the number of patients.

“But clearly, as the number of patients starts to rise, the NHS is going to struggle and may face some very real challenges over the next couple of months. Social distancing is the only way that the strategy of slowing down the spread of the virus can work. The expectation is that number of cases will rise sharply and we’ll start to see more cases come through. It really should bring home to people that while this will be a mild illness for some people, for others it can be very, very serious.”

There have been 167 deaths in England from the coronavirus outbreak, as well as six in Scotland, three in Wales and one in Northern Ireland. Both COVID-19 patients died at Carlisle’s Cumberland Infirmary in the last few days and are believed to have had underlying health conditions, but no further details about them were released.

Meanwhile the government is to pay 80 per cent of wages for employees unable to work due to the coronavirus pandemic, up to £2,500 a month, the chancellor has announced.