The UK’s official Covid-19 death toll lifted by 286 to reach a total of 40,883 across all settings including hospitals, care homes and the wider community on Tuesday

The UK’s official death toll has reached 40,883 people across all settings.about:blankabout:blankabout:blank

The figure includes all those who died in hospitals, care homes and the wider community after testing positive for coronavirus as of 5pm on Monday

The total for Tuesday, June 9, is up by 286 from 40,597 the day before.

On Tuesday last week the death toll rose by 324 people, as the numbers continue a downward trend.

However the Government figures do not include all deaths involving Covid-19 across the UK, with the true death toll thought to have passed 51,000.

Earlier, official figures showed the UK’s hospital death toll had recorded the lowest rise on a Tuesday for two weeks, totalling 31,988 after 145 more fatalities were reported.

England reported 129 deaths, Wales had nine, Scotland recorded seven, and Northern Ireland had no deaths for the third consecutive day.

According to today’s new figures, as of 9am today there have been 5,870,506 Covid-19 tests, with 102,930 tests taking place yesterday.

A total 289,140 people have tested positive since the pandemic began.

As of 5pm on 8 June, of those tested positive for coronavirus, across all settings, 40,883 had died, the government figures showed

Yesterday, it was reported 55 more people had died of Covid-19 in the UK, the lowest increase since lockdown began.

However death toll reporting figures typically lag after a weekend.

When Britain’s lockdown began on March 23, there were 74 Covid-19 deaths recorded across the country.

The latest figures come as a top scientist today predicted the coronavirus daily death toll in the UK could reach zero in just three weeks.

The number of new cases is on the decline, and Professor Carl Heneghan, from Oxford University, told The Times the UK could see zero fatalities from the virus by the end of the month if trends continue.

He told the newspaper: “The trend in the data is looking reassuring and there’s no reason it shouldn’t continue.

“By the end of the month we could be in a position where we are observing no deaths.

Already, less than a fifth of deaths registered in the week ending May 29 in England and Wales involved coronavirus – the lowest proportion since the week lockdown was imposed, figures showed today.

There were 9,824 deaths registered in the week ending May 29 – a fall from the previous week but still 1,653 deaths higher than what would usually be expected, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

Of these, 1,822 involved Covid-19 – 18.5% of the total that week and the lowest number of weekly coronavirus deaths for eight weeks.

While numbers are falling, there have been tens of thousands of “excess” deaths compared to the average number of deaths over five years for the same period, the figures showed.