Coronavirus deaths jump by highest amount to date to 759 after Boris Johnson tests positive for COVID-19

The number of deaths of patients with coronavirus has risen by its largest number as Boris Johnson confirmed he was still governing despite being infected.

The 759 recorded now is a rise of 181 from Wednesday’s toll of 578.

The number of cases has risen to 14,579 from yesterday’s total of 11,658, a rise of 2,921.

The nations of the UK announce their deaths at different times. Scotland announced eight deaths earlier today and Northern Ireland confirmed three more deaths today.

It is unclear how their tallies overlap with the figure published by the UK government today, which are accurate to 5pm yesterday.

Among those is Boris Johnson, who announced in a video on Twitter that he had the virus.

Johnson said: “I have developed mild symptoms of the coronavirus, that’s to say a temperature and persistent cough.

“On the advice of the chief medical officer I have taken a test that has come out positive.

“But be in no doubt that I can continue, thanks to the wizardry of modern technology, to communicate with all my top team to lead the national fightback against coronavirus.”

The Department for Health has changed the way it reports cases and deaths.

It will now publish the latest deaths for the 24-hour period before 5pm the previous day, while the latest cases will come from the 24 hours up to 9am.

The number of global confirmed cases stands at more than 550,000 while deaths of patients who contracted coronavirus stands at the 24,000 mark, according to Johns Hopkins University in the US.

There have also been more than 127,000 recoveries around the world.

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Health secretary Matt Hancock has also tested positive, which he announced shortly after the prime minister.