The UK has endured its highest number of daily deaths since the coronavirus crisis began, raising the total toll to more than 2,000 people.
On Wednesday, the hospital death toll jumped by 563 to 2,352 — a 31 per cent increase on the previous day’s toll of 1,789.
The amount of confirmed cases also jumped from 25,150 on Tuesday to 29,474 on Wednesday, an increase of more than 4,000.
Testing remains a contentious issue in the UK, with the Department of Health saying it carried out a total of 10,412 tests on 7,511 people — some of whom had to be tested several times for clinical reasons.
Britain’s current capacity is just 12,750 tests per day, compared to Germany’s figure of around 500,000 per week, and there are fears not enough frontline health workers are being tested to check if they are able to return to work after illness.
The UK government has admitted it needs to “go further” with testing and is aiming to double its daily test capacity by mid-April, up to two weeks away.
“We expect to be at 15,000 tests over the course of this week and then moving further forward in the future,” housing minister Robert Jenrick told broadcaster ITV.
Read more here: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-02/britain-comes-to-terms-with-its-darkest-day-yet/12113024
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