The number of people who have died in the UK after testing positive for coronavirus has jumped by 684 in 24 hours.
A total of 3,605 patients have died in hospital after testing positive for Covid-19 5pm on Thursday, up from 2,921 the day before.
The Department of Health said that 173,784 tests have now been carried out - 38,168 of which came back positive.
Public Health England said 11,764 tests were carried out on Thursday in England, while testing capacity for inpatient care in the country currently stands at 12,799 tests per day.
Today’s figures from the Department of Health show that for the second day running more than 10,000 new people were tested in the UK for coronavirus.
A total of 10,590 new people were reported as being tested in the 24 hours to 9am April 3.
The equivalent figure for April 2 was 10,215.
The total number of people in the UK tested since the outbreak began is now 173,784.
This is the equivalent of around 261 people in every 100,000, or 0.3 per cent of the population.
The number of coronavirus-related hospital deaths reported by the Department of Health stood at 3,605 as of 5pm April 2.
It took 19 days for this number to pass 300. It has taken further 11 days to pass 3,000.
Meanwhile, the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK has taken two weeks to go from just under 4,000 (3,983 as of 9am March 20) to just under 40,000 (38,168 as of 9am April 3).
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Health Secretary Matt Hancock warned on Friday that the highest level of infections may arrive earlier than first predicted, and suggested that extreme social distancing measures started 12 days ago may have to be extended.
