Britain's toll leaps to record 854; France reports highest casualty

London: A record-high 854 coronavirus deaths have been announced in the UK today, taking the total to 6,227.

Meanwhile France has reported its highest single-day death toll since the coronavirus pandemic started in the country, Health Minister Olivier Veran said. The 833 deaths registered include fatalities from hospitals and care homes, bringing the country's overall death toll to 8,911, third highest in the world behind Italy and Spain, reports Efe news.

"This is not over. Far from it. We are not at the end of the ascent of this epidemic," Veran told a press conference. "The path remains long and nothing is over."

NHS England has confirmed 758 people have died, with authorities in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland announcing a further 96 between them.

Patients in England were aged between 23 and 102 years old, and 29 of them - aged between 23 and 99 - had no known underlying health conditions.

Scotland revealed 74 more deaths had been recorded in the past 24 hours, along with 19 in Wales and three in Northern Ireland.

The death toll is almost double the 437 announced yesterday and marks a new low for Britain in its battle against the epidemic.

However, experts say reports get delayed over the weekend, meaning numbers appear to start declining on Sunday and Monday but then surge again towards the middle of the next week - for this reason it is better not to pin too much significance to a single day's number, they say.

As the numbers of people dying has increased, so too have the numbers of past deaths which are being rolled into each day's daily count. Some of the fatalities announced each day actually happened up to 10 days earlier but had not been recorded because of paperwork delays.

The death toll in the UScrossed the 10,000-mark as the country entered the most difficult phase during this pandemic, with officials stating that there are encouraging signs in the fight against the dreaded disease, mainly due to the aggressive implementation of the mitigation measures.

More than 10,800 Americans died due to the deadly coronavirus and over 366,000 tested positive. Top American scientists are racing against time to develop either a vaccine or a successful treatment.