More than 500 people died after testing positive from coronavirus in the past 24 hours - the biggest rise in the number of deaths so far.
The number of people who passed away with the virus in the 24 hours to 5pm on Tuesday was 563 - a much bigger number than in previous days and weeks.
It is the highest day-on-day rise since the outbreak began and today's total is 31 per cent higher than yesterday.
The Department of Health figures now show a total of 2,352 people have in died in hospital after testing positive with coronavirus - there is an unknown number of people who have died at home or in care homes.
The April 1 figures show a 31 per cent increase on the previous total, and mean out of everyone in Britain who has so far died from coronavirus, around a quarter died in the past 24 hours.
The figures show the scale of the rise this week alone. The week began on Monday with 1,407 deaths - and with 381 more announced on Tuesday and another 563 today, a total of 944 people have died in just the last two days alone.
The Department of Health said that a total of 152,979 people have been tested for coronavirus, and a total of 29,474 have tested positive.
Coronavirus in numbers
It took 17 days for the number in the UK to pass 200, and has taken a further 11 days to pass 2,000.
The number of people tested in the UK for coronavirus has passed 150,000. The total by 9am on April 1 was 152,979.
On average around 8,000 new people were tested a day in the seven days up to April 1. In the previous seven days the daily average was around 5,800.
The total number of confirmed cases in the UK stands at 29,474, as of 9am on April 1. A week ago, on March 25, the total was 9,529.
