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Another 693 people were today confirmed to have died of COVID-19 in England, Scotland and Wales, taking the number of victims to 29,427 and making Britain the worst-hit nation in Europe. 

And separate backdated figures from the Office for the National Statistics show the figure appears to have already been higher than 32,000 by April 24 - 10 days ago. 

That number is 42 per cent higher than the count announced by the Department of Health at the time, suggesting the current total could be higher than 40,000 - this would mean COVID-19 has killed more Britons in eight weeks than died over seven months during the Blitz bombings in World War Two.

Today's data confirms that more people have died of the coronavirus in the UK than in Italy, which is still considered to be the worst-hit country in the world and had suffered 29,079 fatalities by this morning.