A further 823 people have died in hospital from coronavirus today, new figures from the Department of Health and Social Care reveal.
The announcement takes the UK’s total number to 17,337.
As of 9am 21 April, 397,670 people have been tested of which 129,044 were positive.
– When will the UK’s coronavirus cases peak?
The peak of coronavirus infections in the UK has been reached, experts say, raising pressure on ministers to reveal plans for lifting the lockdown as the country enters its fifth week of isolation.
On April 15 Professor Chris Whitty, England’s Chief Medical Officer, said that the outbreak was “probably reaching the peak overall” in the UK.
While Dr Angela McLean, the Ministry of Defence Chief Scientific Adviser, said five days later that the rate of infection in the UK has “stopped rising”.
But, with the UK lockdown recently extended for “at least” another three weeks, what does a slowdown in the infection rate mean? And what will happen next?
