Britain is not seeing an acceleration in the number of cases of COVID-19 but it is too early to tell whether the coronavirus outbreak is peaking, the government's Chief Scientific Adviser Patrick Vallance says

"There is a fairly steady increase in numbers. It's possible we are beginning to see the beginning of change, in terms of the curve flattening a little bit. We won't know that for sure for a week or so," Vallance said at a news conference on Tuesday.

"But what we're not seeing is an acceleration."

Britain's coronavirus-linked death toll jumped again by 786 on Tuesday, taking the country's total number due to the virus to more than 6000.

The health ministry said the total number of confirmed infections rose to more than 55,000, from 270,000 people tested, but government experts estimate that many hundreds of thousands of people are infected.

The ministry's data covers only deaths in hospital, excluding those at care facilities, hospices and private homes.