UK death toll jumps to 26,711 as another 674 die from coronavirus

The Government’s official figures now include deaths in care homes and the wider community after the Department of Health began counting them yesterday.

The UK coronavirus death toll has jumped to 26,711 after another 674 people were confirmed dead.

The Government’s official figures now include deaths in care homes and the wider community after the Department of Health began counting them yesterday.

Previously, the Government only counted people who had died in hospitals after testing positive for coronavirus.

Earlier today, it emerged that another 482 people had died from coronavirus in hospitals across the UK. England recorded another 391 hospital deaths, while Scotland reported 60 deaths. A further 22 were recorded in Wales and nine in Northern Ireland.

The latest figures were revealed by Boris Johnson who said the UK is ‘past the peak’ of the outbreak during his first daily press conference since recovering from coronavirus.

He said: ‘At no stage has our NHS been overwhelmed, no patient went without a ventilator, no patient was deprived of intensive care, we have five of the seven projected Nightingale wards.

‘It is thanks to that massive collective effort to shield the NHS that we avoided an uncontrollable and catastrophic epidemic where the reasonable worst-case scenario was 500,000 deaths.

‘I can confirm today that for the first time we are past the peak of this disease. We are past the peak and on the downward slope.’

With the UK’s coronavirus death toll now the third highest in the world after the US and Italy, Downing Street is playing down any expectations of an easing of restrictions.

Number 10 said a Cabinet meeting earlier in the day would look at the ‘response in general’ but not make any decisions on lockdown measures.

That response was facing further criticism as Health Secretary Matt Hancock’s deadline arrived for carrying out 100,000 Covid-19 tests a day.

With just over 52,000 tests carried out on Tuesday, the deadline looks set to be missed although that will not become clear until Friday.

The target has been condemned by the NHS Providers group as a ‘red herring’ which distracts from shortcomings in the long-term coronavirus strategy.

It released a report on Thursday which highlights how the English health and care system ‘started from a poor position’ as Covid-19 tightened its grip on Europe, and consistently ‘struggled’ to demonstrate a ‘clear, effective and well communicated strategy’, with a lack of clarity on who would be tested, when, how, and with what frequency.

Justice Secretary Robert Buckland acknowledged this morning that the 100,000 target may not be met.

‘Even if it isn’t met, we’re well on our way to ramping this up and 100,000 is an important milestone, but frankly we need more,’ he told BBC Breakfast.

‘If he (Matt Hancock) hadn’t set a target he would have been criticised for being unambitious. I think now is the time in respect of this to be bold… being brave is something we should acknowledge even if the target isn’t met today.’

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