UK coronavirus death toll rises to 27,510 after 739 more die

‘As one, we’ll remember them and treasure their memories,’ Matt Hancock says

Some 27,510 people have now died in the UK after testing positive for coronavirus, Matt Hancock has said.

It represents a rise of 739 since yesterday, the health secretary said.

The figure is for all settings, meaning it includes deaths in care homes which have been included in daily updates only this week.

“As one, we’ll remember them and treasure their memories,” Mr Hancock said. “This is a virus that has a devastating impact on families, on friends, on local communities.

“Right across government, we’re working day and night to defeat it.”

Britain has the third-highest death toll in the world, after the US and Italy, and represents more than one-tenth of the global total.

Worldwide there have been more than 3.3 million infections, 1 million recoveries and 235,000 deaths.

The grim figures came as Mr Hancock announced that the government had met its target of conducting 100,000 coronavirus tests in a day. “The testing capacity that we’ve built will help every single person in this country,” he said, adding that it would help ease lockdown restrictions as part of a test-trace-contact strategy.

Boris Johnson promised on Thursday that next week he would reveal his government’s plan for how the rules could be lifted.