The UK's coronavirus death toll has risen by 190 - a drop of nearly 40% from a week ago.
Today's figures are a significant reduction from the numbers on Wednesday, March 3, when the death toll rose by 315.
A month ago, on Wednesday, February 10, 1,001 people lost their lives to Covid-19.
Statistics also show that the UK has registered 5,926 new cases of coronavirus in the past 24 hours.
That is a steady drop from the 6,385 new cases reported last Wednesday.
Figures from the Government dashboard showed that 231 people died yesterday.
The latest statistics come as it emerges that the Kent variant could be twice as deadly as previous forms of coronavirus.
The findings in the British Medical Journal based on analysis of 110,000 Covid-19 patients suggests the UK will have to live with high death rates for some time.
Epidemiologists from the universities of Exeter and Bristol identified 227 deaths in a sample of 55,000 NHS patients with the Kent variant.
This compared to 141 deaths in a similar sample of patients with older variants.
Following detailed analysis they concluded the variant called B.1.1.7 is between 30% and 100% as deadly.
Researchers stressed that the real increase in mortality risk is likely somewhere in the middle of these two figures.
Lead author Robert Challen, of the University of Exeter said: “In the community, death from Covid-19 is still a rare event, but the B.1.1.7 variant raises the risk.
Health authorities recorded 145 deaths in England's hospitals today, as well as six in Wales, eight in Northern Ireland and 20 in Scotland.
Patients who died in England's hospitals were aged between 42 and 98, and 12 had no known underlying health conditions.
In other coronavirus news today, it has been revealed that huge gaps have opened up between the impact of the Covid pandemic on men and women - with males dying in greater numbers while females endure more negative impacts to their wellbeing.
A new study found vastly differing experiences in lockdown, with women most likely to be furloughed and spending most time on unpaid household chores and childcare.
Women also reported higher levels of anxiety, depression and loneliness.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reveal an 18% difference in deaths between genders, with 63,700 men and 53,300 women losing their lives to coronavirus between March last year and this January.
Men of working age suffered a fatality rate of 31 deaths per 100,000 compared with 17 deaths for women.
But the report also found that a higher proportion of women said the pandemic had had a negative impact on their wellbeing.
