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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
National
Ewan Somerville

UK coronavirus death toll nears 38,500 after rise of 113

The death toll in the UK has passed 26,000 (Picture: Getty Images)

A further 113 people have died after contracting coronavirus, the Department of Health and Social Care has said.

The latest deaths up to 5pm on May 30 take the total UK fatality toll to 38,489 in hospitals, care homes and the wider community.

As of 9am 31 May, there have been 4,285,738 tests, with 115,725 tests on 30 May.

It means a total of 274,762 people have now tested positive.

NHS England announced 85 new deaths linked to Covid-19 on Sunday, taking the total in hospitals in England to 26,614.

In the other regional counts, Scotland recorded nine fatalities, Wales 11 and Northern Ireland one.

The coronavirus death toll is nearing 38,500 (PA)

It brings the regional death tolls to 2,362 in Scotland and 1,342 in Wales.

Of the latest deaths in the home counties, NHS England said 15 occurred on May 30, 31 on May 29 and seven occurred on May 28.

The figures also show 22 of the new deaths took place between May 8 and May 27, nine occurred in April, and the remaining one death took place on March 25.

This is because of the time it takes for deaths to be confirmed as testing positive for Covid-19, for post-mortem examinations to be processed and for data from the tests to be validated.

Public Health Wales also confirmed another 82 people have tested positive for Covid-19, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 13,995. Scotland has recorded 15,400 positive cases.

The UK-wide death and infection figures will be published by the Department of Health and Social Care later this afternoon.

It comes as Bits flock outdoors this weekend despite warnings not to pre-empt Boris Johnson's planned relaxation of the lockdown rules in Enlgland from Monday, allowing groups of six to meet.

Hundreds of sunseekers at Durdle Door, on the Jurassic Coast in Dorset, defied a police closure of the beach, while beaches in Bournemouth and Essex, national parks and Ruislip Lido in west London also saw thousands in hot temperatures.

Deputy chief medical officer Professor Jonathan Van-Tam urged Brits not to "tear the pants out of it", warning infections could easily spike.

Resisting criticism from four Government scientific advisers that tomorrow is too early to ease lockdown further, the Foreign Secretary on Sunday morning that the UK "is making steady progress" but is in a "precarious moment."

But Domninic Raab added: “We can’t just stay in lockdown forever. We have got to transition."

He also said on Sky's Sophy Ridge programme that if there is an "uptick" in cases, "we will have to take further measures again and target the virus wherever it may appear".

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