The UK has recorded its highest daily coronavirus death toll since mid-May, with a 10-year-old boy among those to have died in hospital after testing positive for the virus, data shows.

A further 608 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Tuesday, taking the UK total to 55,838, according to the Government’s coronavirus dashboard.

This is the highest daily total since 614 deaths were reported on May 12 – but there is often a delay in the reporting of deaths over the weekend.

These figures are not the number of people who have died in a single day but the number of deaths reported in the past 24 hours.

Separate figures published by the UK’s statistics agencies for deaths where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate, together with additional data on deaths that have occurred in recent days, show there have been more than 71,000 deaths involving Covid-19 in the UK.

As of 9am on Tuesday, there had been a further 11,299 lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK – down from 15,450 the previous day.

NHS England said on Tuesday that a further 353 people – aged between 10 and 100 – had died in hospitals in England after testing positive for the virus, and that the majority had known underlying health conditions.

The parents of 10-year-old Fehzan Jamil, who is thought to be one of the youngest victims of Covid-19 in the UK, spoke of their “indescribable” pain following his death.

HEALTH Coronavirus
(PA Graphics)

The 10-year-old from Bradford, who had a number of underlying health issues, including epilepsy, died in hospital after contracting the virus and was laid to rest on Monday.

Speaking to Channel 4 News, his parents Tayyaba and Mohammed Jamil described their son as a “really brave fighter” and “soldier”, who was a cheerful boy despite his health problems.

NHS England said that of the 353 deaths recorded, a total of nine people, aged between 31 and 90, did not have underlying conditions.

The deaths were between October 24 and November 23 and take the total number of confirmed deaths in hospitals in England to 38,865, it added.

Fourteen other deaths were reported with no positive Covid-19 test result.