UK coronavirus hospital death toll rises by 77 - lowest increase since lockdown began

A further 77 people have died in UK hospitals of Covid-19 - the lowest rise since lockdown began.

So far the disease has claimed the lives of 29,812 people in clinical settings.

When lockdown began on March 23, 160 people died in English's hospitals alone.

In England 25,751 people have now died in hospitals, an increase of 59 over yesterday's 25,692 total.

A total of 2,273 people have died of Covid-19 in Scotland, up three from 2,270 yesterday.

There are 1,269 people in Scottish hospitals with confirmed or suspected Covid-19, a decrease of 60.

In Wales a further seven people lost their lives to the disease, adding to yesterday's total of 1,267 so far.

There were 106 new infections recorded in the country, bringing the total to 13,415 overall.

Nurses at Addenbrooke's hospital (Getty Images)

In Northern Ireland 514 people have succumbed to the disease, an increase of eight in the past day.

The death toll is lower than it was two Monday's ago when 222 people lost their lives to Covid-19 in hospital.

Last Monday 134 more died in clinical settings.

While death tolls on Monday are typically lower due to a lag in reporting over the weekend, today's total follows a declining trend.

Nurses wait on patients at Covid-19 testing centre in west London (PHILIP COBURN)

At the beginning of April between 700 and 1,000 people were dying every day having caught the coronavirus.

While the UK's death rates from Covid-19 are falling, other countries are facing infectious peaks.

The USA is close to having suffered 100,000 deaths, with hundreds more dying each day.

Russia and Brazil are also in the grips of the virus despite having significantly lower death tolls - 8,946 and 1,595 respectively.

More than 5.40 million people have been reported to be infected with coronavirus globally and 343,900 have died, a Reuters tally shows.

Infections have been reported in more than 210 countries and territories since the first cases were identified in China in December 2019.

People clap for the carers outside Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital in Cramlington (Andy Commins / Daily Mirror)

A new study has found that Coronavirus patients no longer pose a threat of spreading the killer bug after 11 days.

Top Singaporean infectious disease experts are confident patients can then be safely discharged even if they still test positive having studied 73 patients.

The researchers suggest the study could encourage hospital bosses to speed up when to discharge patients, freeing up resources.

The majority of hospitals require two negative tests before someone is considered to have recovered.