A Briton is dying from coronavirus every two minutes as the death toll from the outbreak continues to climb across the UK.
Fatalities surged to 7,172 after 936 people died in the space of 24 hours - making it the country's deadliest day yet.
England has recorded the most deaths (6,483), followed by Scotland (366), Wales (245) and Northern Ireland (78).
It has also emerged that Birmingham is the new epicentre of the disease which has recorded the highest number of cases.
University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust said that the death toll in its hospitals passed 300 victims today.
As of 5pm on April 7, the trust had announced 306 deaths, according to figures from NHS England.
Almost 1,400 of the UK's total 55,242 confirmed cases have been in Birmingham, higher than any London borough.
Follow the latest coronavirus updates in our live blog
London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust has announced 209, King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has announced 191, and the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust has announced 174.
A total of 16 NHS trusts in England have announced at least 100 deaths.
The second NHS Nightingale Hospital, which has been built at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, is to be opened on Friday, Downing Street has said.
The Prime Minister's official spokesman said that it would initially have 500 beds to treat coronavirus patients, with the capacity to expand to 2,000.
"Huge credit should go to all those involved in getting the hospital set up so quickly," the spokesman said.
He added that the third Nightingale Hospital in Manchester was expected to open in "the next week or so".
But it seems the growth in cases has significantly slowed as lockdown restrictions appear to have an effect.
Data gathered from 2 million people in Britain using a new COVID-19 symptom tracker app suggests lockdown measures are slowing the spread of the disease.
Their latest figures suggest that around 1.4 million people in Britain aged between 20 and 69 currently have symptomatic COVID-19, a fall from 1.9 million on April 1, as some have recovered and fewer people report new symptoms.
Tim Spector, who led the King's team analysing the symptom tracker data, said the signs were "encouraging".
"Even though hospital admissions and deaths are still on the rise, we hope that these figures offer a much needed light at the end of the tunnel," he said.
Spector said his data showed, however, that Britain's larger cities like London, Birmingham, Glasgow and Liverpool "continue to have very high levels of symptoms in the community".
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said on Wednesday that Britain is in no position to ease the shutdown as the peak of the COVID-19 outbreak is still likely to be more than a week away.
