Another 252 people have died of coronavirus in UK hospitals, bringing the overall toll to at least 31, 493.
In England, there were 207 deaths, bringing the total number of confirmed reported deaths in English hospitals to 22,972.
Scotland has reported a further 36, Wales has suffered nine more deaths and Northern Ireland is yet to release its latest figures.
This comes as it was today announced that the number of people infected with coronavirus across the globe has passed four million. The death toll is a grim 276,268.
Yesterday, the UK’s hospital death toll stood at 26,093, after a rise of 414 deaths. This included 332 in England, 49 in Scotland, 28 in Wales and 5 in Northern Ireland.
NHS England now releases updated figures each day showing the dates of every coronavirus-related death in hospitals in England, often including previously uncounted deaths that took place several days or even weeks ago.
This is because of the time it takes for deaths to be confirmed as testing positive for Covid-19, for post-mortem examinations to be processed and for data from the tests to be validated.
So, of the 207 new deaths announced today, 47 occurred on May 8, 90 occurred on May 7 and 23 occurred on May 6. The figures also show 23 of the new deaths took place between May 1 and May 5, 19 took place in April, while the remaining five deaths occurred in March, with the earliest new death taking place on March 12.
