UK coronavirus death toll rises by 55 as cases jump by 758

The number of people to have died after testing positive for coronavirus in the UK has risen by 55.

The Government said on Saturday that 46,566 people had died in hospitals, care homes and the wider community in the UK after testing positive for coronavirus as of 5pm on Friday.

Separate figures published by statistics agencies show there have now been 56,600 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.

The Government also said that in the 24-hour period up to 9am on Saturday, there had been a further 758 lab-confirmed cases.

Overall, a total of 309,763 cases have been confirmed.

It comes after Public Health England revealed the number of people to have died in hospitals after testing positive for coronavirus had risen by 16.

In England, the total number of confirmed reported deaths in hospitals now stands at 29,401.

The patients were aged between 67 and 100 years old and all had known underlying health conditions apart from one 91-year-old.

Twelve deaths were reported with no positive Covid-19 test result.

The region with the highest number of deaths was the North East and Yorkshire with eight.

There were no deaths reported in the North West, where local lockdown measures in place in Greater Manchester and parts of east Lancashire were extended on Friday to include Preston.

One new hospital death was reported in Wales, while Scotland did not report any new deaths and Northern Ireland has not yet updated its figures.