Coronavirus: UK death toll rises by 338 to reach 36,042
A further 338 people have died of coronavirus in the UK, the Department of Health has announced this afternoon.
In total, the death toll has now reached 36,042, as of 5pm yesterday evening.
There were also 2,615 more confirmed cases of the virus, taking the total number of cases in the UK to 250, 908.
The number of deaths is fewer than in the previous two days, when there were 545 and 363 fatalities.
However, the true number of victims in the UK is likely to be 10,000 higher than the health department’s official figures.
Data released on Tuesday morning by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed that there have now been more than 44,000 coronavirus-related deaths in the UK.
Almost 10,000 of these deaths took place in care homes in England and Wales, according to the statistics.
Ministers have been under pressure as to whether they had done enough to protect care home residents from the disease.
The new figures came as the confirmed number of cases around the world passed 5m, with more than 328,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.