Coronavirus: 917 new coronavirus deaths as UK told to stay home

11 April 2020
UK

Police on horses speaking to a family — Image captionPeople are being told to stay at home as much as possible - despite the good weather

The UK has recorded 917 new coronavirus deaths, taking the total number of people who have died in hospital with the virus to 9,875.

For the second day in a row, the UK's daily death toll exceeded 900. On Friday there were a record 980 deaths.

People are being urged to have a "stay-at-home Easter" amid lockdown, despite warm weather in much of the UK.

Meanwhile the home secretary said she was "sorry if people feel there have been failings" in NHS protective kit.

"We are in a unprecedented global pandemic. There are going to be problems," Priti Patel added.

Her comments, at the daily coronavirus briefing in Downing Street, came after some NHS workers said they still did not have the personal protective equipment (PPE) needed to treat coronavirus patients.

The UK-wide deaths total is accurate as of 17:00 BST on Friday but does not include those who died in care homes or the community.

Analysis box by Robert Cuffe, Head of statistics

Graph showing UK daily hospital coronavirus deaths

The growth in the total number of new deaths has stalled in the last four days.

In other some other countries that implemented lockdown, the numbers of reported deaths stopped growing about three weeks into lockdown.

But it is too soon to know for sure whether we have reached that point.

There have been reporting lags at weekends and it is possible that a bank holiday weekend will include deaths that go unreported until next week.

The government is urging people to stay at home over Easter to curb the spread of the virus, despite warm and sunny weather across parts of the UK.

At the Downing Street briefing, NHS England medical director Stephen Powis said: "It is a bank holiday weekend, it is a time of year when typically we would be celebrating or getting together with relatives and close friends.

"But I'm afraid this year it has to be, for all of us, a stay-at-home Easter."

Police have issued more than 1,000 fines to people not following social distancing measures, according to early figures released at the government briefing.

Martin Hewitt, chair of the National Police Chiefs Council, said most people spoken to by officers had understood the rules but a "small minority" had refused to comply.

Video captionPriti Patel: Total crime in the UK has dropped but criminality "continues to adapt"

Also at the briefing, Ms Patel announced £2m to support domestic abuse services as she said anyone suffering during the lockdown would still be able to get support from the police.

For those people, Ms Patel said: "Home is not the safe haven that it should be."

Anyone in immediate danger should call 999 and press 55 on a mobile if they are unable to talk, she said.

The home secretary also warned that while total crime had fallen during the lockdown, criminals were adapting.

Fraudsters had already exploited coronavirus with losses to victims exceeding £1.8 million and perpetrators of "sickening online child abuse" were seeking to exploit young people and children being indoors and online.

Meanwhile, the Queen has told the nation "coronavirus will not overcome us" and said "we need Easter as much as ever" in her traditional message marking the celebration.