UK suffers worst day as it records 980 deaths in the last 24 hours

April 10, 2020

Britain suffered another grim day in its coronavirus crisis today as officials recorded another 980 deaths in the home nations, taking the UK's spiralling victims to nearly 9,000.

A further 5,706 people have been diagnosed with the disease in the past 24 hours, meaning a total of 70,783 have now tested positive. Officials managed a record 19,116 tests yesterday, a marked increase in its daily effort from 10,713 yesterday.

England recorded 866 new fatalities among infected patients in hospital, while another 114 were today confirmed in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The number means the UK's worst day has now surpassed that of Italy (919) and Spain (950), which have been at the centre of Europe's devastating epidemic but never recorded more than 950 hospital deaths in a day, a figure reached in Spain on April 3.

But while Europe’s worst-hit countries are now past the peak of the outbreak, the UK’s figures are expected to continue to rise for at least two more weeks.

It comes as Boris Johnson has been moved out of intensive care and into a general ward at St Thomas’s Hospital. The prime minister, 55, sent a message of thanks to the NHS for the ‘brilliant care’ staff had given him. Mr Johnson’s official spokesman passed on the message to mark the third ‘Clap for Carers’ – where every week people applaud NHS workers from balconies and windows during the lockdown. He said: ‘The Prime Minister thanks the NHS for the brilliant care which it is providing. ‘The claps for carers have provided wonderful, unifying moments for the entire country. ‘I’m sure that tonight we will once again see people in their millions paying tribute to our fantastic dedicated care workers.’