UK coronavirus hospital death toll soars by 215 in highest increase in two weeks

The UK's coronavirus hospital death toll has increased to 31,336 after 215 more fatalities were reported in 24 hours - the biggest increase in two weeks.

England reported 179 new deaths, including a 12-year-old child. Wales had 17, Scotland recorded 11 and Northern Ireland had eight amid fresh fears of a devastating second wave of cases as the lockdown is eased.

It is the highest daily increase since May 21, when the four UK nations reported 240 hospital deaths. The totals on recent Wednesdays were 209 on May 27, 235 on May 20, 329 on May 13, 449 on May 6 and 610 on April 29.

Wednesday's figures were announced after the number of deaths involving Covid-19 in the UK passed 50,000 in all settings, including care homes, according to the latest available data.

It is far higher than the Government's official toll of 39,369, which will be updated later on Wednesday.

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The UK has the highest death toll in Europe and the second-highest total in the world, behind only the US, which had 108,083 deaths as of Wednesday afternoon.

NHS England reported 179 new deaths from Covid-19, taking the country's total to 27,045.

The latest victims were aged between 12 and 97.

Of those, four patients (aged between 78 and 93) had no underlying health conditions, said NHS England.

The number of deaths by region are as follows:

- Midlands: 39

- North West: 36

- South East: 31

- London: 30

- North East and Yorkshire : 18

- East: 17

- South West: 8

Of the 179 new deaths announced on Wednesday:

- 20 occurred on June 2

- 47 occurred on June 1

- 18 occurred on May 31

The figures also show 66 of the new deaths took place between May 2 and May 30, 24 occurred in April, and the remaining four deaths took place in March, with the earliest on March 24.

NHS England releases updated figures each day showing the dates of every coronavirus-related death in hospitals in England, often including previously uncounted deaths that took place several days or even weeks ago.

This is because of the time it takes for deaths to be confirmed as testing positive for Covid-19, for post-mortem examinations to be processed and for data from the tests to be validated.

The figures published on Wednesday by NHS England show April 8 continues to have the highest number of hospital deaths on a single day, with a current total of 897.

A total of 2,386 patients have died in Scotland after testing positive for coronavirus, up by 11 from 2,375 on Tuesday, Nicola Sturgeon said.

The figures are lower than the 3,911 deaths given earlier by the National Records of Scotland as they do not include suspected and probable coronavirus infections.

Speaking during First Minister's Questions in the Scottish Parliament, Ms Sturgeon said 15,504 people have tested positive for the virus in Scotland, up by 33 from 15,471 previous day.

There are 1,117 people in hospital with confirmed or suspected Covid-19, a decrease of 51.

Of these patients, 34 were in intensive care, no change on Tuesday.

Public Health Wales said a further 17 people have died after testing positive for coronavirus, taking the total number of deaths in Wales to 1,371.

Another 82 people have tested positive for Covid-19, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 14,203.

Eight new deaths were reported in Northern Ireland, taking its toll to 534.

A further eight positive tests have brought the total diagnosed, largely in hospitals, to 4,740.

The number of deaths involving Covid-19 in the UK has passed 50,000, according to the latest available data.

Figures published on Wednesday by the National Records of Scotland showed that 3,911 deaths involving Covid-19 had been registered in Scotland up to May 31.

On Tuesday, figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that 44,401 deaths involving Covid-19 had occurred in England and Wales up to May 22 (and had been registered up to May 30).

And the latest figures from the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, published last week, showed 716 deaths involving Covid-19 had occurred in Northern Ireland up to May 22 (and had been registered up to May 27).

Together these figures mean that so far 49,028 deaths have been registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate, including suspected cases.

Further deaths can be added to this total, concerning those deaths that have been reported as taking place since the period covered by the latest registration data.

Between May 23 and June 1, a further 931 hospital patients who had tested positive for Covid-19 died in England, according to the latest figures from NHS England; while a further 78 people in hospital and care homes who had tested positive for Covid-19 died in Wales during this same period, according to Public Health Wales.

And in Northern Ireland, a further 22 people who had tested positive for Covid-19 died between May 23 and June 2, according to the Northern Ireland Department of Health.

These add up to a further 1,031 deaths that have occurred since May 23, and together with the total figure of 49,028 registered deaths, means the overall death toll for the UK is now just over 50,000, at 50,059.

Details of deaths that took place in Scotland since the cut-off point for the latest registration data - in other words, deaths on either June 1 or June 2 - are not available, because the Scottish Government does not report deaths by the date on which they occurred.

Once more death registrations are processed and added to the figures for each nation of the UK, it is possible that the 50,000 threshold was actually passed several days ago. This will become clear over the next couple of weeks.

The number of deaths in the UK involving Covid-19 passed 10,000 on April 5 and 20,000 on April 13.

It then passed 30,000 on April 21, and 40,000 on May 3.

Boris Johnson was accused of presiding over a Government that lacked the "trust and confidence" of the British people.

At a fractious Prime Minister's Questions Mr Johnson clashed with Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer about his approach to easing the lockdown and reopening England's schools.

The Prime Minister defended NHS England's test and trace system - one of the key measures introduced to help the return to something approaching normality - but promised to increase the speed with which concerned people get the results of coronavirus tests.

Mr Johnson defended his handling of the crisis, telling MPs: "I take full responsibility for everything this Government has been doing in tackling coronavirus and I'm very proud of our record."

Sir Keir said there had been a "loss of trust" in Mr Johnson's administration and claimed the Prime Minister had refused an offer to work together on building a consensus on the reopening of England's schools.

In response to claims that the test and trace system was weeks away from being fully operational, Mr Johnson said it was working - but stopped short of giving figures to back up his claim.

In other developments:

- More than two in five primary schools in England did not open their doors to more children on Monday, a survey suggests.

- Home Secretary Priti Patel was setting out details of the plan for people arriving in the UK from overseas to undergo a 14-day quarantine period from Monday.

- All schools in Wales will reopen on June 29.

- Research indicated a rare syndrome in children linked to Covid-19 affects youngsters with African heritage more than those who are white.