UK announces record 390 more coronavirus deaths including 19-year-old with NO underlying health conditions taking British total to 1,798 fatalities
- A massive 367 new coronavirus deaths have been recorded in England
- 13 more deaths announced in Scotland, seven in Wales and six in N. Ireland
- England is the worst-hit country in the UK, with more than 1,600 deaths
- One of the fatalities announced today was a formerly healthy 19-year-old
- A new set of statistics launched today including deaths outside of hospitals
- Coronavirus symptoms: what are they and should you see a doctor?
A record-breaking 390 coronavirus deaths have been announced in the UK today, taking the total to 1,798 fatalities.
That makes today the darkest day so far for the NHS, which has seen patients dying by the dozen in hospitals in every corner of the country.
It has now been more than a month since the virus started to spread uncontrollably and more than 22,000 people have tested positive in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
England is at the centre of the ongoing crisis with 1,651 people there dying with COVID-19, followed by 69 in Wales, 60 in Scotland and 27 in Northern Ireland.
Today’s statistics added a further 367 deaths in England, 13 in Scotland, seven in Wales and six in Northern Ireland.
It comes after government statisticians revealed today that the true death toll may be around 24 per cent higher than figures suggest when they released the first data set to include people who died outside of NHS hospitals.
An ambulance is pictured outside the ExCeL conference centre in London, which has been converted into a makeshift hospital for coronavirus patients
Dr Giri Shankar, director of the coronavirus response at Public Health Wales, said: ‘112 new cases have tested positive for novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in Wales, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 1,563, although the true number of cases is likely to be higher.
‘It should be noted that while today’s number of cases is lower than numbers previously reported, this should not automatically be considered a trend as case numbers can be subject to daily fluctuation.
‘Seven further deaths have been reported to us of people who had tested positive for Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), taking the number of deaths in Wales to 69.
‘We offer our condolences to families and friends affected, and we ask those reporting on the situation to respect patient confidentiality.’
Increases in positive tests today pushed the number of diagnosed coronavirus patients in Scotland to 1,993 and in Northern Ireland to 586.
Data released yesterday had given a ray of hope for the future of the outbreak in the UK when it showed the death toll had dropped for two days in a row.
It marked the first time the daily increase in deaths has fallen for two days straight, dropping from 209 on Sunday and 260 on Saturday.
Meanwhile the number of confirmed cases in Britain appears to also be flattening, with just 2,619 new positive tests in the last 24 hours – an only 8 per cent rise from yesterday’s daily increase of 2,433.
But experts predict the true number to be more than two million because of the Government’s decision to only test patients so ill they are admitted to hospital.
At yesterday’s Government briefing, chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance also said the number of people being admitted to hospital with coronavirus is going up ‘in a constant amount’.
But he assured the public the fact the NHS was seeing an additional 1,000 patients a day with coronavirus-related admissions was ‘not an acceleration’ and that the health service was coping.