A resident of Richmond borough died from Covid-19 in the past week, the leader of Richmond Council said.

In his weekly video address, Cllr Gareth Roberts said there has been a small drop in the number of people getting tested for the coronavirus and implored anyone to book in for a test if they exhibit symptoms.

You can watch his broadcast above or read a transcript of it below.

Council leader's full message

Hello, these are the Covid-19 statistics for Richmond-upon-Thames. Over the last seven days we have identified 200 new cases of the virus linked to the borough, bringing the total number of cases identified since March to 2,603.

Unfortunately, over the last seven days there has been one new death directly linked to the virus which brings the total number of deaths directly linked to Covid-19 in the borough since February to 155.

Read more: First death to Covid-19 in Richmond in two months

Over the last seven days we have tested 2,789 people and they've had a positive return rate on those tests of 8.1%. The discrepancy between the number of cases identified and the positive return rate is explained by people being tested more than once.

We do know that over the last seven days fewer people have been tested than we are used to and this could be down to people obeying the Covid-19 lockdown regulations. However, it is vitally important that if you do exhibit any symptoms of the virus that you get yourself tested as soon as possible and I understand that there is good availability in our local test sites.

For the rest of us, we need to keep following the rules: washing our hands wherever possible, wearing a face mask or covering when travelling on public transport or when we're in shops, supermarkets and similarly enclosed public spaces and maintaining a social distance of at least two metres.

And if we're to make the second lockdown work, we need to follow the basic rule to stay at home as much as possible and only go out for essential reasons.

So, please do follow the rules, stay safe and stay healthy. Thank you.

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