The number of lives lost to Covid-19 in the UK has risen by 236.
Today the Department of Health confirmed that a further 5,947 people had tested positive for the virus, which has killed 124,261 since the start of the pandemic.
A week ago there were 290 fatalities, while a fortnight ago the figure was 445.
A month ago, on February 6, there were 828.
Hospital admissions due to coronavirus have fallen by nearly 29 per cent in a week, the latest figures show, with 10,898 patients being treated for the virus.
This week The Mirror reported that there had been more than 110,000 more deaths than usual in England and Wales since March.
This translates to an extra 2,300 more deaths every week of the pandemic, while in January and February this year the total number of people dying from all causes rose by 26 per cent.
Analysis by the Mirror found London, the North West and the South East all lost more than 15,000 people above the five-year average.
The North East had the lowest excess death figure, with 5,287 more fatalities than normal in this period, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Earlier today health authorities announced that 185 patients had died in hospitals in England, 12 in Scotland, seven in Wales and four in Northern Ireland.
It comes following reports yesterday that the UK's coronavirus R rate has risen slightly to 0.7-0.9 - despite cases falling to their lowest level since September.
Figures show the infection rate has risen from 0.6-0.9 a day after it was revealed confirmed cases of coronavirus in England are at their lowest level since September after a 19 per cent drop in a week.
Schools are set to reopen on Monday in the first step in Boris Johnson's "roadmap" to bring England back to normality by the summer.
It marks the first rise in R rate in seven weeks, when it rose from 1.0 on January 8 to 1.2 on January 15.
The growth rate means the number of new infections is shrinking by between 3 per cent to 5 per cent every day.
Falling death rates have also been recorded this week.
