376 people more people die from coronavirus bringing the UK death total to 51,304

A further 376 people have died from coronavirus bringing the UK total to  51,304, the government announced today.

The Government said that, as of 9am on Friday, there had also been a further 27,301 lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK.

It brings the total number of cases in the UK to 1,317,496.

It represents a dramatic fall from yesterday’s record announcement of 33,470 coronavirus cases coupled with 563 deaths.

Separate figures published by the UK’s statistics agencies for deaths where Covid-19 has been mentioned on the death certificate, together with additional data on deaths that have occurred in recent days, show there have now been 67,000 deaths involving Covid-19 in the UK.

The latest stats come as Government scientist’s said the R rate for Covid-19 has dropped to between 1 and 1.2 across the UK.

The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), which advises the Government, said the R continues to fall, with its current prediction representing the situation over the last few weeks.

For the past few weeks, Sage has put the R number at between 1.1 and 1.3. But it warned that deaths and demand for healthcare will carry on unless R drops below one for an extended period of time.

If the R value is above one then the coronavirus epidemic continues to grow, but if it is below one it shows the outbreak is in retreat.

Sage said the number of new infections is growing by between one per cent and three per cent every day.

The UK is the first European nation to record more than 50,000 coronavirus deaths.