The UK coronavirus death toll has risen by its biggest increase yet, 563, bringing the total of reported deaths to 2,352 as of 5pm yesterday.
The number – updated daily- is the only ‘official’ statistic available for the whole of the country, is updated every 24 hours and allows us to see the day-on-day change in the total deaths reported.
What it does not do is give a real-time snapshot of the number of deaths. For instance of the number reported today, the deaths occurred between 14th and 31st of March but their test results have since been returned as positive.
Of the 563 reported today, a further two deaths have been reported in Swindon with the patients passing away on the 28th and 30th of March.
The all important ‘recovered’ figure has been removed from Public Health England reporting but is showing on the World Health Organisation reporting stats as 179. We await further information on the new process for reporting the number of people recovered.
