Coronavirus Death Toll In UK Increases By 786 In 24 Hours

Among those to die was a 23-year-old with no underlying health conditions.
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A further 786 people have died in hospital after testing positive for coronavirus, the government has announced, bringing the UK total to 6,159. 

The Department of Health and Social Care said an additional 3,634 people had tested positive for Covid-19 on Monday, bringing the total UK coronavirus cases to more than 55,000. 

NHS England said that, of those who had died in the UK, 758 people had died in hospitals in England after contracting coronavirus. 

Among them was a 23-year-old with no known underlying health conditions.

Another 28 people – aged between 23 and 99 – also died after testing positive for the disease, despite having no underlying health issues. 

Overall, the age range of the people who died in England was between 23 and 102 years old, authorities said. 

Of the 758 deaths recorded in England: 

East of England: 101

London: 224

Midlands: 142

North-east & Yorkshire: 88

North-west: 90

South-east: 77

South-west: 36

Meanwhile, Scotland reported 74 deaths, while 19 were recorded in Wales and three in Northern Ireland. 

However, this would mean the daily increase to the death toll was 854 – almost 80 higher than that recorded by the department. 

The government tally has never matched the individual totals reported by the four nations, and adding together the countries’ four self-reported total deaths gives the only slightly higher figure of 6,236.

The government said that England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland’s public health chiefs may continue to make last-minute changes to their own figures after reporting into the DHSC, even though the department is typically late releasing the figures every day.

On Tuesday, the Office for National Statistics revealed the virus had been a factor in 5% of all deaths in England and Wales in the week ending March 27 – 539 cases in total.

However, the ONS warned that the true number was likely to be higher, with a lag in reporting the figures. The up-to-date figure is likely to be substantially higher, with the Covid-19 death rate now several times that number.

The ONS data, unlike the daily data from the Department of Health and Social Care, included people dying outside of hospitals whose death certificates mentioned Covid-19, including in combination with other health conditions.

The DHSC only records people dying in hospital after being diagnosed with coronavirus.

Editor’s note: an earlier version of this story relied on the total of 854 reached by adding the four nations’ increases together. Hours later, the DHSC released its own total of 786, which we have chosen to treat as the most up to date figure.