The number of people who have tested positive in the UK for coronavirus has hit 1,950, health officials have announced.
On Monday, the Department of Health and Social Care said a total of 1,543 had been diagnosed with the virus since the outbreak began, with 55 patients having died after testing positive.
As of 9am, 407 more people had tested positive for the virus, the biggest daily increase in cases recorded to date.
Some 50,442 coronavirus tests have now been carried out in the UK, 48,492 of which came back negative.
A spokesman for the Department of Health said the latest death toll would be announced later on Tuesday.
On Monday, the death toll hit 55 and number of cases soared to 1,543 as Boris Johnson set out the need for "drastic action" to tackle the UK's "fast growth" of coronavirus in the UK.
The Prime Minister said that according to the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) “it looks as though we are now approaching the fast growth part of the upward curve” in the number of cases.
“Without drastic action cases could double every five or six days,” he warned at a press conference inside Downing Street.
Setting out increased social distancing measures, Mr Johnson said anyone living with somebody who has either a persistent cough or fever must now also isolate themselves for 14 days.
Mr Johnson said that from Tuesday mass gatherings are something “we are now moving emphatically away from”.
He said “if you or anyone in your household” had one of the two symptoms – a high temperature or continuous cough – “you should stay at home for 14 days.
“That means that if possible you should not go out, even to buy food or essentials, other than for exercise and in that case at a safe distance from others.”
In a dramatic escalation of the Government’s response, Mr Johnson said all members of the public needed to take extra action.
“Now is the time for everyone to stop non-essential contact with others and to stop all unnecessary travel,” he said.
By the weekend, those groups particularly vulnerable to Covid-19 will be asked to stay at home for 12 weeks to ensure they are “largely shielded from social contact”, he said.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock later told the Commons that the advice applied to those with underlying health conditions who would be contacted by the NHS and told what they should do.
On Tuesday, the Government's chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance refused to be drawn on suggestions that the Government’s measures could have to be kept in place for 18 months.
“When we get to the stage where we know we can keep it below the NHS capacity, and when we are happy that can really be maintained properly, that is the time to start talking about how you might release it,” he told the committee.
“I don’t know how long these measures are going to be needed for. It is certainly not a couple of weeks. It is going to be months, I don’t know how many months. It is going to have to be data-driven. You might have to do more, you might have to do less.”
He warned that some measures may be lifted, only to have to be re-imposed if the disease made a return.
“One thing is for sure – we haven’t got immunity to this virus and therefore as we back off it may come back again, and we are going to have to manage that very carefully,” he said.
“All of the evidence from previous epidemics of this type of infection would suggest you can’t avoid this bubbling-up again when you lift off. That is what we are going to have to be aware of.”
