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30th Apr 2020

UK has second highest coronavirus death toll in Europe

Alan Loughnane

ireland lockdown

26,097 have died after testing positive for the virus.

The number of people who have died with coronavirus in the UK has passed 26,000, as figures from the community such as care homes were included for the first time.

Public Health England has said that 26,097 people died after testing positive for the virus, making it the second worst-hit country in Europe after Italy.

It is the first time that data on the number of deaths in care homes and in the community has been included in the UK government’s updates.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the country is in a “dangerous moment” and that the peak of the virus had not yet passed.

In more positive news, South Korea reported on Thursday no new domestic coronavirus cases for the first time since its 29 February peak.

On Wednesday, meanwhile, head of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr Anthony Fauci, said a trial of the antiviral drug remdesivir to Covid-19 patients had shown “clear-cut” effect on the virus.

Preliminary data analysis from the drug trial “shows that remdesivir has a clear-cut, significant, positive effect in diminishing the time to recovery,” Fauci told reporters.

Fauci cautioned that further analysis was needed on the results but said it was an important “proof of concept” because it was proving a “drug can block this virus”.

“This drug happens to be blocking an enzyme that the virus uses,” Fauci said.

“And that’s an RNA polymerase but there are a lot of other enzymes that virus uses that are now going to be targets for this. This will be the standard of care.”

At least 227,723 people have lost their lives in the coronavirus pandemic worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

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