UK suffers lowest coronavirus deaths for four weeks as another 350 die

Today’s jump in deaths is one of the lowest daily increases for weeks, following a rise of 413 yesterday - but death figures tend to drop on Sunday and Monday due to delays in fatalities being registered over the weekend.

Another 350 people have died in UK hospitals after contracting coronavirus, taking the death toll to at least 21,106.

Today’s jump in deaths is the lowest daily increase for four weeks, when 180 people were confirmed dead on March 30. However, death figures do tend to drop on Monday due to delays in fatalities being registered over the weekend.

The toll was updated after England recorded another 329 deaths. Scotland reported 13 deaths, while eight were recorded in Wales. Northern Ireland has not yet released its figures.

A total of 21,106 deaths is calculated by combining the self-reported totals from England (18,749), Scotland (1,262), Wales (796), and Northern Ireland (299, as of yesterday).

The combined daily increase from the three nations (not including Northern Ireland) comes to 350, which could be different to the figure later released by the Department of Health (DoH) this afternoon.

The government has said this difference is because each devolved authority often makes amendments to their own data after reporting deaths to the DoH each day.

For our Coronavirus live blog click here.

It is important to note that all of these deaths occurred in hospitals across the UK. They do not take into account the people dying at home, in care facilities, hospices, or other locations outside of hospitals.

The latest figures were released after Boris Johnson said we are coming to the end of the ‘first phase’ of the UK’s coronavirus outbreak.

In his first speech from Downing Street since being hospitalised with coronavirus, the Prime Minister warned the country is at the point of ‘maximum risk’ in its battle with coronavirus, as he acknowledged frustrations over the continuing lockdown.

But he insisted he would not risk a second peak in the disease by relaxing restrictions too quickly.

Despite the number of hospital deaths from coronavirus passing 20,000, the PM said there are real signs the UK is ‘passing through the peak’ of the outbreak.

He said: ‘We are making progress with fewer hospital admissions, fewer Covid patients in ICU (intensive care) and real signs now that we are passing through the peak.

‘And thanks to your forbearance, your good sense your altruism, your spirit of community, thanks to our collective national resolve, we are on the brink of achieving that first clear mission to prevent our National Health Service from being overwhelmed in a way that tragically we have seen elsewhere.

‘And that is how and why we are now beginning to turn the tide.’

Comparing the disease to a mugger, he said: ‘This is the moment when we have begun, together, to wrestle it to the floor.’

But he warned this moment is a risk as some people might look at the ‘apparent success’ and ‘go easy’ on social distancing measures.

It remains the ‘biggest single challenge this country has faced since the war’, he said, and ‘every day I know that this virus brings new sadness and mourning to households across the land’.