Coronavirus: UK records lowest daily death toll since lockdown began

14 June 2020, 16:28

It comes as Chancellor Rishi Sunak said the two-metre social distancing rule is "under review"
It comes as Chancellor Rishi Sunak said the two-metre social distancing rule is "under review". Picture: PA

By Matt Drake

A further 36 people have died with coronavirus in the UK in the country's lowest daily rise since lockdown began.

Those who tested positive for coronavirus across all settings has risen by 36, bringing the total to 41,698, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) confirmed.

England recorded 27 deaths and three people died in Wales with the virus.

Only one person lost their life in Scotland but figures for Northern Ireland have not been released in order to calculate the UK tally.

Figures over the weekend tend to be significantly lower than on weekdays due to how the deaths are recorded.

It comes as Chancellor Rishi Sunak said the two-metre social distancing rule is "under review" while Prime Minister Boris Johnson said fewer than one-in-a-thousands people are "probably" now infected.

The review of the social distancing measure comes as the economic toll of quarantine has been revealed to be have been even worse than experts predicted.

It was reported two days ago that the UK economy has contracted by 20.4 per cent. April's fall in GDP is the biggest the UK has ever seen.

Today's figures do not include all deaths involving Covid-19 across the UK, which is thought to have passed 52,000.

The DHSC also said in the 24-hour period up to 9am on Sunday, 144,865 tests were carried out or dispatched, with 1,514 positive results.

Overall, a total of 6,772,602 tests have been carried out and 295,889 cases have been confirmed positive.

The figure for the number of people tested has been "temporarily paused to ensure consistent reporting" across all methods of testing.