A national newspaper has apologised for an article suggesting a young High Wycombe woman may not have died of coronavirus. 

Chloe Middleton, a former Beaconsfield School pupil, died on March 19 aged just 21. 

Her devastated family took to social media to warn others of the dangers of the virus and urge everyone to stay at home. 

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Days later, on March 27, the Guardian posted an article online suggesting Chloe may not have died of coronavirus after all because they could not "clarify that a death certificate recorded her cause of death as Covid-19". 

The newspaper has now posted an apology online, saying Chloe's cause of death has been confirmed by "both the family and in a statement on behalf of the Berkshire coroner’s office" as being Covid-19.

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Their clarification said: "We are pleased to clarify this matter and apologise to the family for any confusion and distress caused.

"Since the article was published, statistics were this week released by the Office for National Statistics, which include all deaths where Covid-19 was mentioned on a death certificate, whereas previous government figures counted only those deaths where the patient had a positive test result.

"Ms Middleton’s case should therefore be in ONS figures for coronavirus."