Britain’s coronavirus death toll jumps by 953 to 8,931
The UK’s coronavirus death toll today jumped by 953 to 8,931, according to figures released by all of the home nations.
England recorded 866 new fatalities among patients in hospital, while the other 87 were confirmed in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The preliminary figure – the official toll has yet to be released by the Department of Health – would be the darkest day yet in Britain’s crisis.
Data also suggests it would be Europe’s bleakest day, overtaking the grim milestone set by Spain on April 2 of 950 new hospital deaths.
It comes after a top government adviser warned today Britain won’t know for weeks whether the draconian lockdown can be eased.
The UK’s coronavirus outbreak appears to be coming out of its rapid acceleration phase this week, Government scientists have cautiously pointed out
Experts say it is still too soon to see the impact of the UK’s lockdown – imposed on March 23 – in daily statistics.
But Government advisers last night said the overwhelmed NHS ‘can cope’ with the current situation and intensive care units still have room.
Experts have insisted the curve is flattening, with the number of new cases and the number of patients being hospitalised having stabilised this week.
But they said the death toll would continue to rise for at least another fortnight due to a lag in how fatalities are announced.
Deaths announced each day have not, for the most part, happened in the past 24 hours but are spread across the days and weeks that came before.
This makes it impossible to predict where the peak will be – or has already been – or to get a clear picture until around a week to 10 days after the date in question.