Guidance

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

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

Published 24 January 2020
Last updated 22 June 2020 — see all updates
From:
Department of Health and Social Care and Public Health England

Number of cases and deaths

As of 9am on 22 June, there have been 8,029,757 tests, with 139,659 tests on 21 June.

305,289 people have tested positive.

As of 5pm on 21 June, of those who tested positive for coronavirus in the UK, across all settings, 42,647 have died.

Tests People tested Positive Deaths in all settings
Daily 139,659 Unavailable 958 15
Total 8,029,757 Unavailable 305,289 42,647

Breakdown of testing by testing strategy ‘pillars’

  • Pillar 1: swab testing in Public Health England (PHE) labs and NHS hospitals for those with a clinical need, and health and care workers
  • Pillar 2: swab testing for the wider population, as set out in government guidance
  • Pillar 3: serology testing to show if people have antibodies from having had COVID-19
  • Pillar 4: serology and swab testing for national surveillance supported by PHE, ONS, Biobank, universities and other partners to learn more about the prevalence and spread of the virus and for other testing research purposes, for example on the accuracy and ease of use of home testing

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

Read our testing methodology document about reporting statistics on testing.

Daily

Pillar 1 Pillar 2 Pillar 3 Pillar 4 Total
People tested 18,906 Unavailable - - Unavailable
Tests 29,457 96,468 9,902 3,832 139,659
Positive 260 698 - - 958

Cumulative

Pillar 1 Pillar 2 Pillar 3 Pillar 4 Total
People tested 1,681,704 Unavailable - - Unavailable
Tests 2,500,489 4,267,334 795,915 466,019 8,029,757
Positive 194,970 110,319 - - 305,289

Pillar 2 breakdown of test types

In-person (tests processed) Delivery (tests sent out) Total tests
Daily 14,068 82,400 96,468
Cumulative 1,849,916 2,417,418 4,267,334

Pillar 4 breakdown of test types

In-person (tests processed) Delivery (tests sent out) Total tests
Daily 3,832 0 3,832
Cumulative 162,796 303,223 466,019

22 June notes

To ensure consistent reporting across all pillars we have paused reporting the number of people tested due to an issue with the data for pillar 2. There are a small percentage of cases in pillar 2 where a person has been tested more than once or tested positive for coronavirus more than once. Any incorrect figures identified will be corrected.

The total number of tests has been revised since yesterday’s total after the following changes to the historical data:

  • 183 tests added to the pillar 1 cumulative total
  • 230 tests removed from the pillar 2 cumulative total

The daily tests reported today have been added to this revised total rather than the total reported yesterday, so the cumulative total today is 47 lower than if you added the daily tests to yesterday’s total.

For pillar 2, the cumulative number of in-person tests today is 230 lower than if you added the daily tests to yesterday’s total.

Testing capacity

At 9am on 15 June, testing capacity was 241,540.

Pillar 1 Pillar 2 Pillar 3 Pillar 4 Total
Lab capacity 65,120 135,000 40,000 1,420 241,540

Coronavirus tests are processed in several separate labs. Projected lab capacity is an estimate of each lab’s constrained capacity each day based on the staff, chemical reagents and other resources it has available. These estimates are made locally by the labs themselves.

Further information on the methodology of how capacity is reported is available in the testing methodology document.

Time series

Correspondence with the Statistics Regulator about testing data

The Chair of the Office for Statistics Regulation wrote to us about presentation of statistics about testing.

Read the letter from the regulator.

Read our response, published on 27 May.

General notes

Data on UK tests, positive cases and 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.

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

From 29 April, figures for deaths include all cases where there is a positive confirmed test for coronavirus. The figures include deaths with lab-confirmed COVID-19 in all settings, not just those in hospital, and this provides us with a single figure on an equivalent basis for the whole of the UK.

These UK figures are compiled from validated data provided by each of the four nations of the UK. Figures from Health Protection Scotland, Public Health Wales and the Public Health Agency (Northern Ireland) have always included tested cases outside hospital. Figures for England from 29 April onwards are provided by Public Health England and draw together several different data sources, including data from NHS England and Improvement, to produce this broader measure.

This approach allows us to compile deaths data on a daily basis using up-to-date figures across all settings. The data includes deaths with lab-confirmed COVID-19 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.

The PHE method draws on data from 3 data sources and individual records of deaths are included in the figures as soon as they are available in any of these 3 sources.

As announced previously, from 1 June we have stopped publishing a separate count of deaths in hospital as our daily count now provides a count of deaths in all settings. Figures for deaths in hospital in England continue to be published by NHS England.

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 2020. The ONS series includes cases in all settings, and also includes some cases where COVID-19 is suspected but no test has taken place. ONS detailed data covers England and Wales only, but from 28 April their publication includes a headline summary of registered deaths in the whole of the UK. Their report each Tuesday covers deaths registered up to 11 days before publication.

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.

Published 24 January 2020
Last updated 22 June 2020 + show all updates

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