THE number of people in the UK who have passed away due to coronavirus has gone above 26,000 after deaths in the community, including care homes, were included for the first time in the figures.

Public Health England says the total number of deaths now stands at 26,097.

There was an increase of 765 hospital deaths in the 24-hour period up to 5pm on Tuesday, together with an additional 3,811 deaths in the community due to coronavirus in the period from March 2 to April 28.

Only people who died after testing positive for coronavirus are included in the new total.

At the government’s daily briefing, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab stressed the figure did not represent ’a sudden surge’ in deaths as these were spread over a near two-month period.

A total of 52,429 coronavirus tests took place on Tuesday, while there is the capacity to conduct more than 73,000 tests a day.

Public Health England said it has developed a new method of reporting daily COVID-19 deaths in England, to give a more complete number of those who have died from the virus.