A total of 8,029,757 COVID-19 tests have been carried out in the UK with 305,289 cases having been confirmed positive
The number of coronavirus-related deaths in the United Kingdom has risen by 15 fatalities to 42,647, which is the lowest daily increase of deaths since mid-March.
The UK government has also reported a rise in COVID-19 cases of below 1,000, with just 958 positive results from 139,659 tests carried out within the 24-hour period leading up to 9am on Monday.
This comes as the UK is abandoning its existing NHS contact-tracing app in order to switch to new technology being provided by both Google and Apple.
A total of 8,029,757 COVID-19 tests have been carried out in the UK with 305,289 cases having been confirmed positive according to the Department of Health (DHSC).
The official figure for the number of people who have been tested for COVID-19 has been “temporarily paused to ensure consistent reporting”; and this is across all methods used for testing for the coronavirus.
Due to the differences in how individual health bodies for each of the devolved governments within the UK, as well as the Office for National Statistics report numbers, the DHSC’s figures do not include all fatalities that involve COVID-19 throughout the UK, which is thought to have surpassed 53,500.
Sir Chris Wormald, Permanent Secretary at the Department of Health and Social Care, has faced questions by the Commons Public Accounts Committee, due to the discharge of patients from hospitals to England’s care homes without any rigorous COVID-19 testing process being put in place.
The senior civil servant at the DHSC has previously defended the government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic within care homes throughout England, after being accused of a “negligent” and “reckless” approach.
Conservative MP Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown levelled the accusations of negligence at officials over their handling of the care homes crisis.
Sir Chris said that hospitals needed to prepare for large numbers of COVID-19 patients and people were only discharged if they were assessed to be clinically fit.
He acknowledged there had been “huge challenges” in care homes but “considerable progress” had been made.
This comes as Boris Johnson is expected to announce on Tuesday plans for the UK’s hospitality sector to begin to re-open from the 4th of July, and he is thought to be setting out whether the two-metre social distancing rule can be relaxed in England.
Boris Johnson is expected to outline his plans to parliament for the re-opening of pubs, restaurants, hotels and hairdressers and a reduction of the two-metre rule.
Matt Hancock, the UK’s Health Secretary, has said over the weekend that England is “clearly on track” regarding any further easing of the lockdown measures following repeated calls to reduce the two-metre guidelines to just one metre.
Britain’s Prime Minister will also be outlining plans to parliament for pubs, restaurants, hotels and hairdressers to start re-opening for business across England, and likely a loosening of the distancing guidelines to help boost the UK’s economy.
