Coronavirus: 288 more people die in lowest daily rise since March
The UK has recorded 288 more deaths of people who tested positive for coronavirus, the lowest daily rise since 29 March.
A total of 28,734 people have now died, while 190,584 cases have been confirmed, a rise of 3,985 from Sunday.
Health secretary Matt Hancock noted the small rise and added that figures tend to be lower after a weekend.
It is the first time the number of daily reported deaths across the UK has fallen below 300 since 29 March, when 214 were recorded.
It remains the second worst hit country in Europe, just short of Italy, on 28,884, and the third worst hit in the world, behind the US’s total of 67,000.
Globally, there are more than 3.5 million confirmed cases and 247,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.
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In a message broadcast for an international pledging conference on Monday, Boris Johnson said the world will need to work together to develop a coronavirus vaccine.
The conference was called to raise €7.5 billion (£6.5bn) towards global cooperation in diagnostics, treatments and a vaccine.
The prime minister said: “In our own countries we’ve taken extraordinary measures asking our people to accept sweeping restrictions on their way of life.
“And by doing so we’ve formed a human shield around our health systems, enabling our heroic health workers to save many lives, including my own.
“But the truth is that none of us can succeed alone to win this battle. We must work together to build an impregnable shield around all our people and that can only be achieved by developing and mass producing a vaccine.
“The more we pull together and share our expertise the faster our scientists will succeed.”
Johnson is expected to provide more detail on how the UK will ease up on lockdown restrictions on Sunday.
Workplaces could see half-empty lifts, staggered shifts and physical screens where keeping distance between employees is not possible, according to draft official documents seen by the BBC and the Financial Times.
The chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Michael Gove, said on 3 May that some form of social distancing would need to remain until a vaccine is developed but until then, the government would attempt to bring people’s lives “as close to normal as possible”.
The daily deaths reported by the government appear to have risen again within the last week, but that came after the government began including fatalities happening outside of hospitals.
