Guidance

Number of coronavirus (COVID-19) cases and risk in the UK

The latest number of coronavirus (COVID-19) cases and risk level in the UK.

Published 24 January 2020
Last updated 28 April 2020 — see all updates
From:
Department of Health and Social Care and Public Health England

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Number of cases and deaths

As of 9am on 28 April, there have been 763,387 tests, with 43,563 tests on 27 April.

599,339 people have been tested, of whom 161,145 have tested positive.

As of 5pm on 27 April, of those hospitalised in the UK who tested positive for coronavirus, 21,678 have died.

Tests People tested Positive Deaths
Daily 43,563 29,571 3,996 586
Total 763,387 599,339 161,145 21,678

Breakdown of testing by 3 of the testing strategy ‘pillars’

Daily

Pillar 1 Pillar 2 Pillar 4 Total
People tested 14,558 15,013 - 29,571
Tests 16,440 25,289 1,834 43,563
Positive 2,455 1,541 - 3,996

Cumulative

Pillar 1 Pillar 2 Pillar 4 Total
People tested 496,221 103,118 - 599,339
Tests 623,435 131,645 8,307 763,387
Positive 138,097 23,048 - 161,145

Pillar 2 breakdown of test types

In-person routes Delivery routes Total tests
Daily 10,900 14,389 25,289
Cumulative 97,045 34,600 131,645
  • Pillar 1: swab testing in PHE labs and NHS hospitals for those with a clinical need, and health and care workers
  • Pillar 2: swab testing for health, social care and other essential workers and their households
  • Pillar 4: serology and swab testing: a national surveillance programme supported by PHE, ONS and Biobank to learn more about the prevalence and spread of the virus

See the government’s national testing strategy for more information on the different pillars.

General notes

Data on UK positive and negative tests and data on deaths is updated on this page daily at 2pm or shortly after. The figures for test results and for deaths are compiled from different sources. This is why the figures for deaths are reported from an earlier point in time than the figures for test results.

For clinical reasons some people are tested more than once. Therefore the number of tests completed will be higher than the number of people tested. For serology testing (pillar 4), some protocols allow for samples to be tested repeatedly. Samples are anonymised prior to sending to the lab for testing, therefore the identification of individuals tested is not possible in the current reporting process, and so the number of people tested is not reported.

Daily totals reflect actual counts reported for the previous day. Each day there may be corrections to previous reported figures. This means that previously published daily counts will not necessarily sum to the latest cumulative figure. It also means that today’s cumulative count may not match the previous day’s cumulative count plus today’s daily count.

Notes on deaths figures

The figures on deaths relate in almost all cases to patients who have died in hospital and who have tested positive for COVID-19. Slight differences in reporting in devolved administrations may mean that they include a small number of deaths outside hospital. The figures are compiled from validated data provided by NHS England and Improvement, Health Protection Scotland, Public Health Wales and the Public Health Agency (Northern Ireland).

These figures do not include deaths outside hospital, such as those in care homes, except as indicated above. This approach allows us to compile deaths data on a daily basis using up-to-date figures. The data includes confirmed cases reported as at 5pm the previous day. The amount of time between occurrence of death and reporting in these figures may vary slightly and in some cases could be a few days, so figures at 5pm may not include all deaths for that day.

In addition to these figures, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes weekly counts of deaths in which COVID-19 was mentioned on the death certificate. This publication is issued every Tuesday, starting on 31 March. It includes cases outside hospital and also some cases where COVID-19 is suspected but no test has taken place. ONS data will initially cover England and Wales only and will report on deaths registered up to 11 days before publication, so up to 20 March for their first release.

Joint DHSC and ONS transparency statement about COVID deaths figures

Material published by PHE

PHE updates a daily dashboard to show trends in UK data on positive tests and deaths and to provide confirmed cases in each local authority and NHS region in England.

Risk level

The risk to the UK has been raised to high.

Published 24 January 2020
Last updated 28 April 2020 + show all updates

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