Coronavirus has claimed the lives of 162 more people in UK hospitals in the last 24 hours, it has emerged.
Deaths in hospitals reported today number 132 in England, one in Northern Ireland, 12 in Wales, and 17 in Scotland.
Today's total is a 68 per cent drop from this date last month, when 508 Covid hospital deaths were added to the grim toll.
On Thursday a further 202 people died of coronavirus in UK hospitals, a decline of 70 per cent from the total exactly a month ago yesterday.
The record number of hospital deaths announced in a single day was 1,185 on January 20, while Britain was in the peak of its second wave of the crisis, which the World Health Organisation declared a pandemic a year ago yesterday.
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While hundreds of people are still dying of the disease each day in the UK, there continue to be signs that the pandemic response is headed in the right direction.
The UK's coronavirus R rate could be as low as 0.6 as infections decline, it was announced today.
The reproduction number in the country is between 0.6 and 0.8 - down from 0.7 to 0.9 last week.
The latest figure means on average every 10 people with Covid will infect between six and eight other people.
The north-east and Yorkshire has the highest R rate in the country, with the number ranging from 0.7 to 0.9.
However, in the south-west it is between 0.5 and 0.8.
