England announces 39 more Covid victims in preliminary toll – HALF the number from this time last week – taking the total number of coronavirus deaths in Britain to 44,170
- Some 39 people who tested positive for coronavirus have died in hospital
- Total number of confirmed reported deaths in English hospitals is 28,871
- Patients were aged between 45 and 99 with underlying health conditions
Another 39 people have died of coronavirus in English hospitals – which is around half last Saturday’s 75 deaths, NHS England has revealed.
The total number of people to die after testing positive for COVID-19 is now 28,872, NHS England said.
The patients were aged between 45 and 99 years old and all had known underlying health conditions.
It comes the same day thousands of pubs and restaurants across the country opened their doors to customers for the first time since lockdown began on March 23.
Yesterday Number 10’s scientific advisers revealed the R rate — the average number of people each Covid-19 patient infects — is still between 0.7 and 0.9 as a whole for the UK.
But SAGE admitted it could be as high as 1.1 in London, and 1 in the Midlands, the North East and Yorkshire, the South East and the South West.
Separate data released by the government panel also claimed the UK’s current growth rate — how the number of new cases is changing day-by-day — may be 0 per cent, meaning it has stagnated.
Coronavirus outbreaks could even be growing in London and the South West by two per cent each day.
Britain yesterday recorded 137 more Covid-19 deaths. Official data also shows Britain’s daily number of fatalities have not fallen as quickly in July as they did last month.
Analysis shows the rolling average of daily deaths now stands at 103 — the fewest since the end of March, when the UK’s crisis spiralled out of control.
The total number of people to die after testing positive for COVID-19 is now 28,872, health officials said (file image)
But it has only dropped 15 per cent since last Friday, when 186 new fatalities were recorded. Death rates were dropping by up to 30 per cent week-on-week through mid-June.
Department of Health figures released yesterday also show only 544 new cases were diagnosed, the smallest 24-hour jump since March 17 — a week before ministers first imposed the lockdown.
But other estimates suggest the number of actual cases has plateaued at around 3,500 per day for three weeks.
Number 10’s scientific advisers today revealed the R rate — the average number of people each Covid-19 patient infects — is still between 0.7 and 0.9 as a whole for the UK
A group of mates give a toast with their pints at the Shakespeare’s Head pub in Holborn, central London, as it reopened today
Customers queue outside the Fat Cat Brewery Tap pub in Norwich on Saturday afternoon
This morning pubs in England were allowed to open from 6am, with police and the NHS bracing themselves for fall-outs as people continue to drink into the night to shake off nearly four months in lockdown.
Pub-goers are set to sink a staggering 15million pints at 23,000 establishments across the country, experts predicted.
They will be hit with hiked prices for beer, wine, cider and spirits as pubs including Wetherspoons desperately try to make up for lost business.
More to follow.