UK coronavirus hospital deaths rise by 847 to 14,576
The UK’s coronavirus hospital death toll rose by 847 yesterday, meaning 14,576 people have now died in Britain’s hospitals from the virus.
The number is slightly lower than the daily rise of 861 reported for the day ending Wednesday. The previous daily rise had been 761.
Britain recorded its highest daily death toll on April 9, when the government said 980 people had died. Since then the daily figure has declined slightly and was under 800 for much of this week.
Announcing the latest figures, the Department of Health said: “As of 5pm on 16 April, of those hospitalised in the UK who tested positive for coronavirus, 14,576 have sadly died.” As the figures only cover hospital deaths however, the real number is likely considerably higher.
It said that “341,551 people have been tested of which 108,692 tested positive.” The department added that there had been 21,328 tests on 16 April.
Coronavirus emerged in China in December and has now infected more than 2m people around the world, killing more than 140,000.
Europe is at the centre of the virus, although the US has suffered the most deaths, with more than 34,000.
The UK is only the sixth country in the world to report more than 100,000 cases, along with the US, Spain, Italy, France and Germany.
The rise in the UK’s death toll comes as the government faces accusations that it acted too slowly in tackling the virus.
“We were too slow with a number of things,” Anthony Costello, professor of international child health and director of the UCL Institute for Global Health, told Parliament’s Health and Social Care Committee today.
Costello suggested there were “system errors” early on that “led us to have probably the highest death rates in Europe”. He added: “We could see 40,000 deaths by the time it’s over.”
Costello advocated wide-scale testing of the sort the UK government is yet to achieve. The government has not yet found an antibody test that is suitably accurate.
The government says it has acted according to the best scientific advice throughout the outbreak.