Michael Ejercito
2020-05-10 16:09:27 UTC
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8305007/Britain-announces-205-coronavirus-deaths-taking-countrys-total-fatalities-31-792.html
Hopes rise ahead of Boris's big speech as Britain announces 205 more
coronavirus deaths - the lowest daily tally in more than six weeks - taking
the country's total fatalities to 31,792
The official death toll for the UK is now 31,792 and is the second highest
globally
NHS England confirmed 178 more deaths in hospitals in England
Scotland announced a further 10 fatalities, and 12 more people died in Wales
along with five in Northern Ireland. These include community deaths
Scientists today warned the lives of 100,000 Britons could be lost to the
virus
A separate study estimates 700,000 deaths in Britain due to the pandemic
Here’s how to help people impacted by Covid-19
By VANESSA CHALMERS HEALTH REPORTER FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 09:14 EDT, 10 May 2020 | UPDATED: 11:18 EDT, 10 May 2020
Britain has suffered a further 205 coronavirus deaths - the lowest figure in
more than six weeks since March 26.
A total of 31,792 have now died of COVID-19 across the UK. However, there is
always a dip in daily deaths at the weekend and the true toll is likely to
be higher in reality due to a delay in gathering death certificates.
The glimmer of hope comes as Prime Minister Boris Johnson prepares to
formally announce the next stage of the lockdown at 7pm tonight.
Limits on outdoor activities are expected to be among the first thing to
relax from tomorrow - but Government ministers have insisted there will be
no major changes.
Downing Street today has attempted to defend the decision to ditch the
blanket 'stay at home, protect the NHS, save lives' slogan for an ambiguous
'stay alert, control the virus, and save lives' line.
The softer approach has already attracted a backlash with leaders in
Scotland and Wales refusing to abandon the familiar 'stay at home' strategy.
It comes amid warnings from scientists that thousands more lives will be
lost to the pandemic. One study estimates 100,000 Britons could be lost to
the killer infection by the end of the year if the crisis is not controlled.
And a separate study estimates 700,000 people will die in Britain as a
result of the COVID-19 and the lockdown measures used to control it - more
than in the Second World War.
Britain has suffered a further 205 coronavirus deaths - the lowest figure in
more than six weeks since March 26. The official death toll for the UK is
now 31,792 +5
Britain has suffered a further 205 coronavirus deaths - the lowest figure in
more than six weeks since March 26. The official death toll for the UK is
now 31,792
Matt Hancock asked Boris Johnson to 'give him a break' after a recent
bust-up between the pair over the Health Secretary's handling of the
coronavirus outbreak +5
The glimmer of hope comes as Prime Minister Boris Johnson (pictured on May
8) prepares to formally announce the next stage of the lockdown at 7pm
tonight
On another pivotal day in the all-consuming crisis:
Mr Johnson is expected to confirm that garden centres will be allowed to
open from Wednesday and publish guidance for safer working in offices - but
tougher fines of up to £3,000 for breaches of the rules;
Airports and travel companies reacted with fury to plans to impose two
weeks' quarantine on anyone arriving in the country, including UK citizens
returning from holiday;
Ministers voiced suspicion that political opponents and union barons were
colluding to block schools reopening until pay demands were met, in a group
they described as 'The Blob';
A poll has found Britons believe the government has handled the crisis worse
than other major countries apart from the US;
Mr Jenrick revealed that 40 per cent of Isle of Wight residents, around
50,000 people, have downloaded the NHS coronavirus tracking app in the first
week;
Statistician Professor David Speigelhalter has branded the government's use
of figures 'embarrassing', saying test numbers were being misrepresented and
the public was not being treated with 'respect'.
Flower power! Rhododendrons bloom in all their glory across...
Nine in 10 Britons do NOT want lockdown to end immediately...
China fires another shot in diplomatic war of words: Beijing...
'I don't know what ''stay alert'' means': Nicola Sturgeon...
Britain's biggest trade unions have today been accused of playing politics
amid the coronavirus crisis, after threatening to tell millions of members
not to return to work unless the government introduces policies to ensure
workplaces are safe.
Leaders of unions such as Unite, Unison and the General, Municipal,
Boilermakers (GMB) have written an open letter to Prime Minister Boris
Johnson demanding he guarantees 'the right policies and practices are in
place to make workplaces safe' in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
The letter, published in The Observer today, and which is also backed by the
Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW), also urges the
government to boost funding for health and safety enforcement in the
workplace.
Unions represent mostly public sector workers – around 60 per cent of union
members are in the public sector and 40 per cent are in the private sector.
And while many private sector workers are itching to get back to work, many
of their commutes depend on public sector transport workers who have not
been furloughed or had their pay cut in the coronavirus crisis.
Now critics have hit out at unions over their stance in today's open letter
to Mr Johnson and warned them to steer clear of playing 'left wing
politics'.
Henry Smith, Conservative MP for Crawley in West Sussex, told MailOnline:
'So long as safety measures are in place there can be no excuse for unions
seeking to prevent a return to work when appropriate.
'Unions have a duty to support the recovery of our nation's economy out of
the Covid-19 crisis, not play left wing politics.'
NHS England today confirmed 178 more people had died in its hospitals, 148
of which have occurred in the past three days. The rest date back as late as
March 17.
It brings the total number to 23,149 in hospitals alone. More fatalities
that have happened outside of hospitals, including in care homes and private
houses, will be announced by the Department of Health later today.
Patients were aged between 32 and 98 years old. Twelve of the patients, aged
between 58 and 95 years old, had no known underlying health condition.
Scotland, meanwhile, announced a further 10 fatalities, and 12 more people
died in Wales along with five in Northern Ireland.
These figures include deaths in community settings, but health officials do
not provide a clear breakdown of how many fatalities occurred in each
setting.
Britain now has the second highest death toll in the world, after the US
where 79,700 people have succumbed to the pneumonia-causing virus.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson will address the nation tonight at 7pm and is
expected to unveil a new DefCon-style five stage system to describe the
country's outbreak condition.
The focus will shift to getting businesses running, with detailed guidance
for firms on how they should operate, and garden centres allowed to open
from Wednesday with social distancing measures.
Shoppers could be urged to wear face coverings, as has already happened in
Scotland.
Breaches of the more nuanced rules could be enforced with harsher fines.
Plans are being drawn up to use 'peer pressure' to get people to
self-isolate, as those who test positive will be told to get in touch with
anyone they might have infected.
But ahead of the PM's speech, he has already been forced to defend his 'exit
plan' amid a furious backlash at dropping the powerful 'stay at home,
protect the NHS, save lives' slogan.
How the government's DefCon style five stage alert system for the UK's
coronavirus outbreak could work
The PM is expected to drop the slogan 'stay at home, protect the NHS, save
lives' in a televised address to the UK tonight at 7pm
Twitter user Olaf Falafel also altered the guidance into 'stay selfish, look
after yourself, i'm not high risk'
Instead, a new 'stay alert, control the virus, and save lives' mantra (left)
will be pushed out by officials, which has attracted backlash and caused
confusion and mocking (right)
ONLY HALF OF BRITS SAY THEY WILL DOWNLOAD NHS CONTACT TRACING APP
Only 52 per cent of Britons said they would download the NHS contract
tracing app, according to a poll by The Observer.
The app alerts users when they have been in close contact with someone who
has reported symptoms of COVID-19.
But experts have said that around 60 per cent of the population - 40million
people - will need to download 'NHSX' to make the software effective.
Researchers at the University of Oxford believe the app can only be
effective when used by 80 per cent of the population.
With lower levels of usage, it may help to reduce the strain on the NHS by
reducing cases, but it would not necessarily crush the coronavirus crisis,
which has killed at least 31,600 in the UK.
The NHSX app is a key piece in the UK Government's plan to get the country
out of lockdown, integrated in their test, track and trace strategy.
But there is some reluctance to download the app because of a cloud hanging
over data protection - which ministers have denied is a problem.
The app design has also been fraught with complications since trialling of
it began on Isle of Wight this week, such as that older phone models are not
compatible.
Instead, a new 'stay alert, control the virus, and save lives' mantra will
be pushed out by officials, which has attracted backlash and caused
confusion among the public.
Brits mocked the new guidance in a series of hilarious memes online,
creating their own versions of the new slogan such as, 'stay selfish, look
after yourself, i'm not high risk'.
Leading politicians condemned getting rid of the old slogan that has brought
the country to an effective standstill since March 23, forcing the PM to
clarify the new advice on Twitter just hours before his 7pm speech.
Nicola Sturgeon said she had not been informed about the change, and
insisted the simple guidance would stay in force in Scotland whatever the PM
says. Wales also indicated it would still tell people to stay at home.
Ms Sturgeon, who will attend a Cobra meeting later to sign off the changes,
has previously warned that ditching the clear and simple advice will be
'potentially catastrophic'.
Researchers predict social distancing measures will be needed until December
2024 in order to beat COVID-19 if a vaccine is not discovered.
If Britain is plunged into a recession as a result, more than 675,000 could
die from the virus, poor healthcare and impoverishment over the next five
years, experts warn.
The study, which is due to be published in the Scientific Journal
Nanotechnology Perceptions, estimates around 150,000 people will die from
coronavirus over five years under semi-lockdown conditions.
Lead author Philip Thomas, a Professor of Risk Management at the University
of Bristol, produced the staggering figure based on projected death rates
linked to the virus, together with the economic impact of the lockdown and
that of previous recessions.
Professor Thomas told the Sunday Express: 'Poverty kills just as surely as
the coronavirus.
'The policy of coming out of lockdown gradually, over five years - which
will be necessary if we are to keep the infection rate close to or below 1 -
will reduce the toll on life from the coronavirus but incur a far greater
loss of life through the impoverishment of the nation.'
The research also revealed that a slow easing of lockdown, which will help
avoid a strain on the NHS due to an influx of cases, will likely result in
the economy shrinking by up to a quarter in 2020 - and the economy may not
recover until 2024.
It comes after the government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies
(SAGE) received warnings that there could be 100,00 coronavirus deaths by
the end of the year if measures are relaxed too far and too fast.
NINE IN TEN BRITONS DON'T WANT THE LOCKDOWN TO END
Nine in 10 people do not want the lockdown to ease immediately - with 50 per
cent happy to stay off work if they are getting paid or receiving government
subsidies.
As Boris Johnson prepares to unveil his 'exit strategy', a poll found just 4
per cent believe the draconian restrictions should start to be lifted now,
and another 7 per cent were not sure.
Some 44 per cent would prefer later in May, while the same proportion say
next month or beyond.
The Deltapoll research for the Sun on Sunday also found half of Britons say
they are happy to stay off work as long as they are getting paid or
receiving government subsidies, while 25 per cent said they would prefer to
return to work if there was a risk to their company or of job cuts.
Just 11 per cent said they wanted everyone to o back to work now.
Meanwhile, a separate survey by Opinium has given a warning sign to
ministers, suggesting the public believes the response to the crisis has
been worse in the UK than France, Italy and China.
The research found 29 per cent think the UK has handled the situation worse
than Italy and Spain. Over half 52 per cent believe the German response has
been better.
A study by experts from the London School of Tropical Hygiene and College
London modelled different approaches to 'evaluate which were viable and
which were not' and reportedly concluded there was 'very limited room for
manoeuvre'.
Today's deaths mean a total of 1,857 patients have succumbed to the virus in
Scotland.
The Scottish Government said 13,486 people have now tested positive for the
virus in Scotland, up by 181 from the day before.
Public Health Wales announced its total death toll now stands at 1,111 and
infections 11,344 - up by 223 in 24 hours.
And in Northern Ireland, cases stand at 4,119, an increase of 41 in one day.
Some 435 people have died of COVID-19.
The Department of Health and Social Care has not revealed how many new cases
there in England yet. Therefore the total diagnosed infections in the UK
excluding England has reached 215,705.
The true size of Britain's actual COVID-19 outbreak remains a mystery
because of ministers' controversial decision to abandon mass testing early
on in the crisis.
The number of tests that have been conducted across the four nations will
also be revealed later. But figures show the 100,000 daily testing target
has been missed for a week straight. Just 96,878 swabs were carried out in
on May 8- down slightly from May 7th's 97,029.
Of the total 23,150 confirmed reported deaths in England hospitals,
University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust has reported the most
with 818.
All of the home nations except England add fatalities in all settings,
including care homes, to their overall tally.
Delays in death reports, uncounted victims who died at home or in care
homes, and a refusal to count anyone who hasn't been tested mean the daily
death counts are not the most accurate measure of how many people are being
killed by the illness.
Although the overall UK death toll collected by the Department of Health and
Social Care stands at 31,792, the real figure is far higher.
The Office for National Statistics says that up until April 24, there were
29,710 deaths across all settings in England and Wales that involved
COVID-19.
At the time, a further 2,219 people had died in Scotland, according to
National Records Scotland, and 393 in Northern Ireland, its statistics
agency, NISRA, shows. This was a total of 32,322.
The number is 42 per cent higher than the count announced by the Department
of Health at the time - 22,173 fatalities.
If this was applied to the figures today, it would suggest more than 45,500
people had succumbed to the disease.
Hopes rise ahead of Boris's big speech as Britain announces 205 more
coronavirus deaths - the lowest daily tally in more than six weeks - taking
the country's total fatalities to 31,792
The official death toll for the UK is now 31,792 and is the second highest
globally
NHS England confirmed 178 more deaths in hospitals in England
Scotland announced a further 10 fatalities, and 12 more people died in Wales
along with five in Northern Ireland. These include community deaths
Scientists today warned the lives of 100,000 Britons could be lost to the
virus
A separate study estimates 700,000 deaths in Britain due to the pandemic
Here’s how to help people impacted by Covid-19
By VANESSA CHALMERS HEALTH REPORTER FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 09:14 EDT, 10 May 2020 | UPDATED: 11:18 EDT, 10 May 2020
Britain has suffered a further 205 coronavirus deaths - the lowest figure in
more than six weeks since March 26.
A total of 31,792 have now died of COVID-19 across the UK. However, there is
always a dip in daily deaths at the weekend and the true toll is likely to
be higher in reality due to a delay in gathering death certificates.
The glimmer of hope comes as Prime Minister Boris Johnson prepares to
formally announce the next stage of the lockdown at 7pm tonight.
Limits on outdoor activities are expected to be among the first thing to
relax from tomorrow - but Government ministers have insisted there will be
no major changes.
Downing Street today has attempted to defend the decision to ditch the
blanket 'stay at home, protect the NHS, save lives' slogan for an ambiguous
'stay alert, control the virus, and save lives' line.
The softer approach has already attracted a backlash with leaders in
Scotland and Wales refusing to abandon the familiar 'stay at home' strategy.
It comes amid warnings from scientists that thousands more lives will be
lost to the pandemic. One study estimates 100,000 Britons could be lost to
the killer infection by the end of the year if the crisis is not controlled.
And a separate study estimates 700,000 people will die in Britain as a
result of the COVID-19 and the lockdown measures used to control it - more
than in the Second World War.
Britain has suffered a further 205 coronavirus deaths - the lowest figure in
more than six weeks since March 26. The official death toll for the UK is
now 31,792 +5
Britain has suffered a further 205 coronavirus deaths - the lowest figure in
more than six weeks since March 26. The official death toll for the UK is
now 31,792
Matt Hancock asked Boris Johnson to 'give him a break' after a recent
bust-up between the pair over the Health Secretary's handling of the
coronavirus outbreak +5
The glimmer of hope comes as Prime Minister Boris Johnson (pictured on May
8) prepares to formally announce the next stage of the lockdown at 7pm
tonight
On another pivotal day in the all-consuming crisis:
Mr Johnson is expected to confirm that garden centres will be allowed to
open from Wednesday and publish guidance for safer working in offices - but
tougher fines of up to £3,000 for breaches of the rules;
Airports and travel companies reacted with fury to plans to impose two
weeks' quarantine on anyone arriving in the country, including UK citizens
returning from holiday;
Ministers voiced suspicion that political opponents and union barons were
colluding to block schools reopening until pay demands were met, in a group
they described as 'The Blob';
A poll has found Britons believe the government has handled the crisis worse
than other major countries apart from the US;
Mr Jenrick revealed that 40 per cent of Isle of Wight residents, around
50,000 people, have downloaded the NHS coronavirus tracking app in the first
week;
Statistician Professor David Speigelhalter has branded the government's use
of figures 'embarrassing', saying test numbers were being misrepresented and
the public was not being treated with 'respect'.
Flower power! Rhododendrons bloom in all their glory across...
Nine in 10 Britons do NOT want lockdown to end immediately...
China fires another shot in diplomatic war of words: Beijing...
'I don't know what ''stay alert'' means': Nicola Sturgeon...
Britain's biggest trade unions have today been accused of playing politics
amid the coronavirus crisis, after threatening to tell millions of members
not to return to work unless the government introduces policies to ensure
workplaces are safe.
Leaders of unions such as Unite, Unison and the General, Municipal,
Boilermakers (GMB) have written an open letter to Prime Minister Boris
Johnson demanding he guarantees 'the right policies and practices are in
place to make workplaces safe' in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
The letter, published in The Observer today, and which is also backed by the
Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW), also urges the
government to boost funding for health and safety enforcement in the
workplace.
Unions represent mostly public sector workers – around 60 per cent of union
members are in the public sector and 40 per cent are in the private sector.
And while many private sector workers are itching to get back to work, many
of their commutes depend on public sector transport workers who have not
been furloughed or had their pay cut in the coronavirus crisis.
Now critics have hit out at unions over their stance in today's open letter
to Mr Johnson and warned them to steer clear of playing 'left wing
politics'.
Henry Smith, Conservative MP for Crawley in West Sussex, told MailOnline:
'So long as safety measures are in place there can be no excuse for unions
seeking to prevent a return to work when appropriate.
'Unions have a duty to support the recovery of our nation's economy out of
the Covid-19 crisis, not play left wing politics.'
NHS England today confirmed 178 more people had died in its hospitals, 148
of which have occurred in the past three days. The rest date back as late as
March 17.
It brings the total number to 23,149 in hospitals alone. More fatalities
that have happened outside of hospitals, including in care homes and private
houses, will be announced by the Department of Health later today.
Patients were aged between 32 and 98 years old. Twelve of the patients, aged
between 58 and 95 years old, had no known underlying health condition.
Scotland, meanwhile, announced a further 10 fatalities, and 12 more people
died in Wales along with five in Northern Ireland.
These figures include deaths in community settings, but health officials do
not provide a clear breakdown of how many fatalities occurred in each
setting.
Britain now has the second highest death toll in the world, after the US
where 79,700 people have succumbed to the pneumonia-causing virus.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson will address the nation tonight at 7pm and is
expected to unveil a new DefCon-style five stage system to describe the
country's outbreak condition.
The focus will shift to getting businesses running, with detailed guidance
for firms on how they should operate, and garden centres allowed to open
from Wednesday with social distancing measures.
Shoppers could be urged to wear face coverings, as has already happened in
Scotland.
Breaches of the more nuanced rules could be enforced with harsher fines.
Plans are being drawn up to use 'peer pressure' to get people to
self-isolate, as those who test positive will be told to get in touch with
anyone they might have infected.
But ahead of the PM's speech, he has already been forced to defend his 'exit
plan' amid a furious backlash at dropping the powerful 'stay at home,
protect the NHS, save lives' slogan.
How the government's DefCon style five stage alert system for the UK's
coronavirus outbreak could work
The PM is expected to drop the slogan 'stay at home, protect the NHS, save
lives' in a televised address to the UK tonight at 7pm
Twitter user Olaf Falafel also altered the guidance into 'stay selfish, look
after yourself, i'm not high risk'
Instead, a new 'stay alert, control the virus, and save lives' mantra (left)
will be pushed out by officials, which has attracted backlash and caused
confusion and mocking (right)
ONLY HALF OF BRITS SAY THEY WILL DOWNLOAD NHS CONTACT TRACING APP
Only 52 per cent of Britons said they would download the NHS contract
tracing app, according to a poll by The Observer.
The app alerts users when they have been in close contact with someone who
has reported symptoms of COVID-19.
But experts have said that around 60 per cent of the population - 40million
people - will need to download 'NHSX' to make the software effective.
Researchers at the University of Oxford believe the app can only be
effective when used by 80 per cent of the population.
With lower levels of usage, it may help to reduce the strain on the NHS by
reducing cases, but it would not necessarily crush the coronavirus crisis,
which has killed at least 31,600 in the UK.
The NHSX app is a key piece in the UK Government's plan to get the country
out of lockdown, integrated in their test, track and trace strategy.
But there is some reluctance to download the app because of a cloud hanging
over data protection - which ministers have denied is a problem.
The app design has also been fraught with complications since trialling of
it began on Isle of Wight this week, such as that older phone models are not
compatible.
Instead, a new 'stay alert, control the virus, and save lives' mantra will
be pushed out by officials, which has attracted backlash and caused
confusion among the public.
Brits mocked the new guidance in a series of hilarious memes online,
creating their own versions of the new slogan such as, 'stay selfish, look
after yourself, i'm not high risk'.
Leading politicians condemned getting rid of the old slogan that has brought
the country to an effective standstill since March 23, forcing the PM to
clarify the new advice on Twitter just hours before his 7pm speech.
Nicola Sturgeon said she had not been informed about the change, and
insisted the simple guidance would stay in force in Scotland whatever the PM
says. Wales also indicated it would still tell people to stay at home.
Ms Sturgeon, who will attend a Cobra meeting later to sign off the changes,
has previously warned that ditching the clear and simple advice will be
'potentially catastrophic'.
Researchers predict social distancing measures will be needed until December
2024 in order to beat COVID-19 if a vaccine is not discovered.
If Britain is plunged into a recession as a result, more than 675,000 could
die from the virus, poor healthcare and impoverishment over the next five
years, experts warn.
The study, which is due to be published in the Scientific Journal
Nanotechnology Perceptions, estimates around 150,000 people will die from
coronavirus over five years under semi-lockdown conditions.
Lead author Philip Thomas, a Professor of Risk Management at the University
of Bristol, produced the staggering figure based on projected death rates
linked to the virus, together with the economic impact of the lockdown and
that of previous recessions.
Professor Thomas told the Sunday Express: 'Poverty kills just as surely as
the coronavirus.
'The policy of coming out of lockdown gradually, over five years - which
will be necessary if we are to keep the infection rate close to or below 1 -
will reduce the toll on life from the coronavirus but incur a far greater
loss of life through the impoverishment of the nation.'
The research also revealed that a slow easing of lockdown, which will help
avoid a strain on the NHS due to an influx of cases, will likely result in
the economy shrinking by up to a quarter in 2020 - and the economy may not
recover until 2024.
It comes after the government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies
(SAGE) received warnings that there could be 100,00 coronavirus deaths by
the end of the year if measures are relaxed too far and too fast.
NINE IN TEN BRITONS DON'T WANT THE LOCKDOWN TO END
Nine in 10 people do not want the lockdown to ease immediately - with 50 per
cent happy to stay off work if they are getting paid or receiving government
subsidies.
As Boris Johnson prepares to unveil his 'exit strategy', a poll found just 4
per cent believe the draconian restrictions should start to be lifted now,
and another 7 per cent were not sure.
Some 44 per cent would prefer later in May, while the same proportion say
next month or beyond.
The Deltapoll research for the Sun on Sunday also found half of Britons say
they are happy to stay off work as long as they are getting paid or
receiving government subsidies, while 25 per cent said they would prefer to
return to work if there was a risk to their company or of job cuts.
Just 11 per cent said they wanted everyone to o back to work now.
Meanwhile, a separate survey by Opinium has given a warning sign to
ministers, suggesting the public believes the response to the crisis has
been worse in the UK than France, Italy and China.
The research found 29 per cent think the UK has handled the situation worse
than Italy and Spain. Over half 52 per cent believe the German response has
been better.
A study by experts from the London School of Tropical Hygiene and College
London modelled different approaches to 'evaluate which were viable and
which were not' and reportedly concluded there was 'very limited room for
manoeuvre'.
Today's deaths mean a total of 1,857 patients have succumbed to the virus in
Scotland.
The Scottish Government said 13,486 people have now tested positive for the
virus in Scotland, up by 181 from the day before.
Public Health Wales announced its total death toll now stands at 1,111 and
infections 11,344 - up by 223 in 24 hours.
And in Northern Ireland, cases stand at 4,119, an increase of 41 in one day.
Some 435 people have died of COVID-19.
The Department of Health and Social Care has not revealed how many new cases
there in England yet. Therefore the total diagnosed infections in the UK
excluding England has reached 215,705.
The true size of Britain's actual COVID-19 outbreak remains a mystery
because of ministers' controversial decision to abandon mass testing early
on in the crisis.
The number of tests that have been conducted across the four nations will
also be revealed later. But figures show the 100,000 daily testing target
has been missed for a week straight. Just 96,878 swabs were carried out in
on May 8- down slightly from May 7th's 97,029.
Of the total 23,150 confirmed reported deaths in England hospitals,
University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust has reported the most
with 818.
All of the home nations except England add fatalities in all settings,
including care homes, to their overall tally.
Delays in death reports, uncounted victims who died at home or in care
homes, and a refusal to count anyone who hasn't been tested mean the daily
death counts are not the most accurate measure of how many people are being
killed by the illness.
Although the overall UK death toll collected by the Department of Health and
Social Care stands at 31,792, the real figure is far higher.
The Office for National Statistics says that up until April 24, there were
29,710 deaths across all settings in England and Wales that involved
COVID-19.
At the time, a further 2,219 people had died in Scotland, according to
National Records Scotland, and 393 in Northern Ireland, its statistics
agency, NISRA, shows. This was a total of 32,322.
The number is 42 per cent higher than the count announced by the Department
of Health at the time - 22,173 fatalities.
If this was applied to the figures today, it would suggest more than 45,500
people had succumbed to the disease.