Coronavirus: UK records 917 new coronavirus deaths – including an 11-year-old
Written by News on 12/04/2020
The UK has recorded 917 new coronavirus deaths – including an 11-year-old.
This brings the total number of UK deaths to 9,875, according to the Department of Health, making it likely that the toll will pass 10,000 on Easter Sunday.
The figures are accurate as of 5pm on Friday.
The rise in cases announced on Saturday was slightly lower than the rise of 980 announced on Friday.
England reported 823 new deaths, with victims aged between 11 and 102, NHS England said.
Thirty-three of them had no known underlying health conditions – they were aged between 29 and 94.
The deaths include 208 in London, 197 in the North West of England, and 165 in the Midlands.
The total number of deaths in England is now 8,937.
Scotland announced 47 new coronavirus deaths, taking the total there to 542, while Wales reported 36 deaths, bringing the overall number there to 351.
Another 15 people have died in Northern Ireland, taking the total there to 107.
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Also among the UK dead are at least 19 NHS workers, something Health Secretary Matt Hancock described as a “heartbreaking story”.
Mr Hancock told Sky News on Saturday that he is not aware of a link between the deaths and a shortage of personal protective equipment but that an investigation would be carried out.
There has also been criticism of Mr Hancock’s comments during a Friday news conference, where he said PPE needed to be used “appropriately”.
He had said: “We need everyone to treat PPE like the precious resource it is.
“Everyone should use the equipment they clinically need, in line with the guidelines: no more and no less.”
Labour Party leader Keir Starmer had described the implication that NHS workers were wasting PPE as “quite frankly insulting”.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Boris Johnson is making “very good progress” in his recovery from COVID-19, a Downing Street spokesman has said.
Mr Johnson has been doing sudoku and watching films such as the Lord Of The Rings trilogy while in hospital.
Across the UK, there had been 78,991 confirmed cases of the virus as at 9am on Saturday.
Worldwide, more than 1.7 million people have tested positive for the virus, with more than 103,000 deaths, according to data from US university Johns Hopkins.
(c) Sky News 2020: Coronavirus: UK records 917 new coronavirus deaths – including an 11-year-old
