Britain has the fifth-highest number of coronavirus deaths after US, Italy, Spain and France

This article is more than 4 months old

This article is more than 4 months old

More than 20,000 people have now died in UK hospitals after testing positive for coronavirus, a milestone described by the home secretary as “tragic and terrible”.

The death toll reached 20,319 on Saturday, after 813 new hospital deaths were recorded. Britain has the fifth highest official coronavirus death toll in the world, after the US, Italy, Spain and France.

The Department of Health and Social Care said: “As of 5pm on 24 April, of those hospitalised in the UK who tested positive for coronavirus, 20,319 have sadly died.”

Speaking at the daily Downing Street briefing on Saturday, Priti Patel said: “As the deaths caused by this terrible virus pass another tragic and terrible milestone, the entire nation is grieving.”

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The government’s chief scientific adviser, Patrick Vallance, and Stephen Powis, the national medical director for England, both said last month that keeping the toll under 20,000 would be “a good outcome”.

Asked about the comment on Saturday, Powis said: “When [we] made that comment a number of weeks ago, what we were emphasising is that this is a new virus, a global pandemic, a once-in-a-century global health crisis. And this was going to be a huge challenge not just for the UK, but for every country.”

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Powis said it was “a very sad day for the nation” and that the current crisis was “not something we are going to get over in the next few weeks”. He added: “I think moving past 20,000 deaths just reminds everybody that it is still absolutely critical that we continue to follow the social distancing guidelines.”

The total number of fatalities is likely to be much higher than the current official toll, largely because deaths in care homes are not included in the government’s daily update.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) calculated that deaths in care homes for week 15 of 2020, between 3 and 10 April, are more than double compared with the five-year average.

A “cautious estimate” from the Financial Times put the overall UK death toll at 45,200 as of Friday. As of 10 April, the hospital toll underestimated deaths by about 40%.

Although the numbers of new fatalities have been dropping for a few days, experts said it could be another two weeks until the death rate will start to decline quickly.

The death toll passed the 20,000 mark after 711 new deaths were recorded in England, where the overall hospital death toll stands at 18,084.

The 711 people who were included in the government’s daily update of fatalities on Saturday were aged between 34 and 100 years old. Eighty-seven of the 711 patients had no known underlying health condition.

A total of 1,231 patients have died in Scotland after testing positive for Covid-19, a rise of 47 from Friday, the Scottish government confirmed. The number of people who have tested positive for the virus in the country is 10,051, up 354 on Friday.

Covid-19-related deaths in Wales continued to rise on Saturday, with the announcement that a further 23 people had died, taking the total to 774. A further 16 deaths have been recorded in Northern Ireland, with the total number of fatalities now at 294.

Revised restrictions that came into force on Saturday across Wales stipulate people must exercise as close as possible to home.

Public Health Wales said on Saturday that another 299 people had tested positive for the virus, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 8,900.