United Kingdom

    The UK has today announced 449 more coronavirus deaths - the fewest for a fortnight. England declared 429 deaths and a further 20 were confirmed across Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. And 4,676 more people have tested positive for the virus, taking the total number of patients to 124,743. The day's death toll is a fall on the 596 fatalities announced yesterday, Sunday, and half as many as the day before that (888). It is the lowest number for a fortnight, since April 6 when 439 victims were confirmed. Although the statistics are known to drop after a weekend, the sharp fall adds to evidence that the peak of the UK's epidemic has blown over. It comes as a medicine professor at the University of Oxford has argued the peak was actually about a month ago, a week...

    Furious doctors have warned they might be forced to stop treating patients as ministers admitted tonight that a crucial consignment of personal protective equipment has failed to arrive from Turkey. Medical associations have warned that their members face difficult choices about exposing themselves and other patients to risk of infection, with fears that supplies of critical items are running low in hospitals. Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said he 'hoped' the 84 tonnes of kit from Turkey would now be in the UK tomorrow, despite it having been announced with fanfare by Cabinet colleague Robert Jenrick last night. But appearing alongside Mr Williamson at the daily Downing Street briefing, deputy chief medical officer Jenny Harries complained that critics are n...

    The death toll of coronavirus patients in UK hospitals has passed 15,000. As of 5pm on Friday, there had been 15,464 fatalities among Covid-19 patients, according to the Department of Health. That was up 888 from the same time the day before. As of 9am on Saturday, 357,023 people have been tested for the virus, of which 114,217 tested positive. Overall, 460,437 tests have concluded. There were 21,389 tests on Friday, excluding data from Northern Ireland. It is feared the true toll of coronavirus victims may be far higher, with the numbers not accounting for deaths in the community. Care homes are not included in the figures, amid fears some 7,500 people could have died after catching Covid-19 in such environments. The update comes as the UK faces its fourth weeke...

    The hospital has a capacity of 500 beds, which can be increased to 1,500. Prince William, the grandson of Queen Elizabeth, has inaugurated a new hospital for coronary heart disease, which was built in just eight days at the exhibition center in Birmingham, the second largest city in Britain. The Duke of Cambridge opened the NHS Nightingale Hospital at the National Exhibition Center via video link. T. The hospital is the second of seven to be built in England to help tackle the pandemic of the new serious virus, which has so far killed nearly 13,000 people in Britain. The hospital has a capacity of 500 beds, which can be increased to 1,500. Its construction involved 400 foreign associates, military personnel and about 500 members of the nursing and medical staff.

    Ministers are today set to approve a three-week extension to the UK's coronavirus lockdown amid warnings that the country will have to practise social distancing until a vaccine is found. Professor Neil Ferguson told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: We will have to maintain some form of social distancing, a significant level of social distancing, probably indefinitely until we have a vaccine available. It came as Captain Tom Moore, the army veteran who set out to raise £1,000 for the NHS by doing laps of his garden 100 times ahead of his 100th birthday, completed his challenge, receiving more than £13million in donations. Meanwhile, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said that a total of 27 NHS workers have died since the start of the outbreak, including Mary Agyeiwaa Agy...

    The first UK-built ventilators backed by a consortium of leading manufacturers have been delivered to hospitals over the weekend, with another device now in final clinical trials. It is understood a number of ParaPac devices, made by Smiths Medical whose production lines have been boosted by the involvement of The Ventilator Challenge UK (TVUK) group were sent to wards across the UK in the last few days. Production of the model, which was already being built before the Covid-19 outbreak, was scaled up by the involvement of the consortium, which includes Formula One racing teams Mercedes, McLaren and Williams. The group, which also involves Rolls-Royce, Airbus, and BAE Systems, has also put its manufacturing and design muscle behind improving another ventilator, mad...

    Another 717 coronavirus patients have died in UK hospitals, taking the nationwide total to 11,329. It is the lowest increase recorded over the Bank Holiday weekend, after 980 on Friday, which surpassed the worst confirmed daily totals in Italy and Spain, 917 on Saturday and 737 on Sunday. The number of people who have been tested for COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus, rose to 290,720 following another 15,506 tests on Monday - with 88,821 having now tested positive in the UK. The figures were announced by the Department of Health. Updates were provided earlier by authorities in each home nation. NHS England announced another 667 coronavirus patients had died in hospitals in England, taking the total in the country to 10,261. Of those latest deaths, 118 o...

    Boris Johnson has been discharged from hospital but won't immediately return to work as he continues to recover from coronavirus, Downing Street has said. The prime minister will recuperate at Chequers, his official country retreat in Buckinghamshire, after spending almost a week at St Thomas' Hospital in central London. Mr Johnson was first admitted to hospital last Sunday night for tests. The action was taken due to the prime minister's coronavirus symptoms persisting for more than a week after he was first found to have contracted COVID-19. He was moved into intensive care when his health detriorated on Monday afternoon and he remained in critical care until Thursday, during which time he was supported with oxygen. In his absence, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab...

    Coronavirus has revealed a deep divide in our nation between the haves and have-nots. No, not those smug stockpilers sitting on stacks of toilet roll. The real gap that’s been brought to the fore is between those who have kids and those who don’t. It’s not like I never realised this huge difference before. Among my friends, there’s a sharp line in the sand(pit) between breeders and non-breeders. The former suggest meeting for lunch at 11.30am, the latter are sometimes just getting home from a night out at that time. There are those who have to schedule our meet-ups with military precision between naps and playdates, and those who do it around holidays, facials and all the ‘trivial’ things child-free people in their thirties do with their weekends (#sorrynotsorry). ...

    Britons have been urged to stick to coronavirus lockdown rules and resist visiting their local beach or park as temperatures were expected to soar to 26C in some areas over the Easter weekend. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the Bank Holiday weekend will be a test of the nation’s resolve as he issued another warning to the public to “stay at home” and curb the spread of the virus. The warning comes a day after the UK recorded its highest daily death toll among Covid-19 hospital patients, with the total nearly at 9,000. Meanwhile, Boris Johnson is said to be making very good progress while being treated in hospital for coronavirus, where he spent three nights in intensive care .