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More than 20,000 people have died with coronavirus in UK hospitals, the Health Department announced.
The latest figures showed a total of 20,319 deaths in the UK, an increase of 813 the day before.
At the government’s daily briefing, the Home Secretary described the figure as a “tragic and terrible milestone.”
Last month, the government’s top scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, said keeping deaths below 20,000 would be a “good result.”
At the Downing Street briefing, Home Secretary Priti Patel said: “As the deaths from this terrible virus exceed another tragic and terrible milestone, the entire nation is grieved.”
51 days have passed since the first virus-related death was announced in the UK.
- Does 20,000 hospital deaths mean failure for the UK?
Government figures do not take into account deaths that occurred in nursing homes, at home, in hospices, or elsewhere in the community.
These are measured separately by the Office of National Statistics, based on death certificates, and a weekly figure is announced every Tuesday.
Last week, that figure indicated there were at least 1,662 deaths, as of April 10, which were above the number of hospitals.
The fact that we have passed the grim milestone described by Sir Patrick Vallance in less than two months is a tragedy for the affected families and a concern for the rest of the country.
There are strong signs, at least in hospitals, that we have exceeded the death toll.
The fact that this has happened without the health service being overwhelmed as Italy was is at least good news.
However, deaths in nursing homes, which are not included in daily government figures, are increasing rapidly and could be very difficult to control.
In fact, if we had included them, we would have passed the 20,000 mark some time ago.
To date, four other countries have announced an official number of coronavirus-related deaths in excess of 20,000: the United States, Spain, Italy and France.
Globally, confirmed cases of coronavirus reach more than 2.8 million, and it is expected to reach the figure of 200,000 deaths imminently.
In March Sir Patrick told parliamentarians that “the hope” was to keep the death toll in the UK below 20,000.
That ambition was later echoed by NHS England medical director Professor Stephen Powis, who said the United Kingdom would have “done very well in this epidemic” if deaths remained below that figure.
Sir Patrick appeared before the Commons Health Selection Committee on March 17, when the number of deaths in UK hospitals was 71.
“If we can reduce the numbers to 20,000 or less, that’s a good result in terms of where we hope to get to with this outbreak,” he said.
