Coronavirus death toll in UK surpasses 30,000

The British government is expected to extend the lockdown restrictions on Thursday when they come up for review, because deaths remain elevated despite falling when measured over a seven-day period.

Pedestrians walk along side closed shops during the coronavirus lockdown in London, Tuesday, May 5, 2020. Whilst a few European countries relax the COVID-19 lockdown, Britain still remains under lockdown without an exit strategy yet. (Photo | AP) 

LONDON: The UK has become the second country to record more than 30,000 deaths as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Robert Jenrick, the communities secretary, said at the government's daily briefing that another 649 people in the U.K. have died in all settings, including hospitals and care homes, after testing positive for the coronavirus.

That takes the U.K.'s official death toll to 30,076, only behind the United States, which has more than 71,000 coronavirus-related deaths.

The British government is expected to extend the lockdown restrictions on Thursday when they come up for review, partly because deaths remain elevated despite falling when measured over a seven-day period.

Jenrick also said that just under 70,000 tests for the coronavirus were conducted on Tuesday.

That's short of the 100,000 targets the government had set for the end of April, which it managed to achieve twice.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson set a new target for the testing a capacity of 200,000 tests a day by the end of May.