UK coronavirus death toll tops 10,000

While number of new cases and hospitalizations appears to have plateaued, deaths are still rising, with growing fears that UK will end up being country with most deaths in Europe

British health officials said Sunday that 737 more people in the United Kingdom had died from the new coronavirus, raising the total number of UK deaths from COVID-19 to over 10,000.

The National Health Service tally of recent fatalities includes deaths in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The deaths brought the toll to 10,612.

The increase was lower than the nearly 1,000 fatalities recorded on each of the previous two days, but means Britain still has one of the highest COVID-19 daily death rates globally.

While the number of new cases and hospitalizations appears to have plateaued, deaths are still rising. Virus death tolls in Italy and Spain have been on a downward slope, and there are growing fears that the UK will end up being the country with the most virus deaths in Europe.

Earlier Sunday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was discharged from a London hospital, where he was treated in intensive care for the coronavirus.

Screen capture from video of Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaking from self isolation, which he began after contracting the coronavirus, April 3, 2020. (Twitter via AP)

Johnson’s office said he left St. Thomas’ Hospital and will continue his recovery at Chequers, the prime minister’s country house.

Johnson had been in the hospital for a week and had spent three nights in the intensive care unit. Earlier he had said he owes his life to the National Health Service staff who treated him.

Johnson, 55, was the first world leader confirmed to have the illness. His coronavirus symptoms at first were said to have been mild, including a cough and a fever, and he was working from home during the first few days.

But he was admitted to St. Thomas’ on April 5 after his condition worsened and he was transferred the following day to its intensive care unit, where he received oxygen but was not put onto a ventilator. He spent three nights there before moving back to a regular hospital ward.

The Mail on Sunday newspaper reported Johnson’s friends had revealed he came close to death while in intensive care and said he owed his life to the hospital’s medical team, raising a second round of questions about whether the gravity of the situation had not been made clear.

Britain has been in effective lockdown since March 23 and the government is set to extend the restrictions sometime this week.