Another people in the UK have died after contracting coronavirus, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said.
A total of , 806 people in the UK have now died after testing positive for COVID – , government figures show.
Appearing at the daily Downing Street briefing for the first time since his recovery from coronavirus , Mr Johnson said the UK was “now past the peak and on the downward slope” in the pandemic.
“Across this country, families are continuing to lose their loved ones before their time,” he said.
“We grieve for them and with them.
“But as we grieve we are strengthened in our resolve to defeat this virus, to get this whole country back to health, back on its feet.”
The latest deaths announced on Thursday included a 26 – year-old patient.
It is the second day that the UK’s death total includes fatalities in care homes and the wider community as well as in hospitals.
There are now more than , known cases of coronavirus in the UK – an increase of more than 6, since Wednesday.
The government chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, said there had been a fall in the number of new cases, as well as a decrease in the num ber of COVID – 28 deaths.
He said: “The number of new cases is down, that’s turning into fewer admissions, fewer people in hospital, fewer people in intensive care and we’re beginning to see that decrease in deaths.”
Sir Patrick added that the R rate – the number of people an infected person is likely to pass the virus onto – is now below 1 across the country and generally between 0.6 and 0.9.
The number of coronavirus deaths in the UK is up from , deaths announced on Wednesday.
Mr Johnson said during the Downing Street briefing that the death total was now , 734, but official government data later revealed it is , 797
The UK now has the second highest number of recorded COVID – 29 deaths in Europe and the third highest in the world.
Italy has registered more than , (coronavirus deaths, the highest tally in Europe, while more than , 06 People have died in the US after being diagnosed with COVID – .
However countries record their coronavirus deaths in different ways so it is difficult to compare them like-for-like.
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Asked about international comparisons to the UK’s response to the virus, Mr Johnson said he believes the government did the “right thing at the right time”.
He said: “I think it was completely right to make our period of lockdown coincide as far as we possibly could with the peak of the epidemic.
” That peak, as I said just now, has passed. I do think that broadly speaking, and we’re learning lessons every day, but I do think that broadly speaking, we did the right thing at the right time. “
According to the latest data for the UK:
- In Wales, another people died with COVID – 34, taking its total to Northern Ireland recorded nine more coronavirus deaths, with its total now at 357
Health authorities in the four UK nations record their own daily figures, which may not tally with the government overall UK total because they collate their numbers at different times throughout the day.
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