UK announces 684 more coronavirus victims: Total death toll reaches 3,605 and more than 38,000 people

There was yet gain another record-breaking number of coronavirus fatalities in Britain today, as the outbreak hurtles towards its peak devastation (shown left). Yesterday there were a record 569 new fatalities announced by the Department of Health and today's 684 show a rise 20 per cent larger. The new numbers mean the death toll has risen five-fold in a week, from just 759 last Friday, March 27. Health Secretary Matt Hancock today admitted that next week is likely to be worse still and could top out at more than 1,000 deaths per day by Easter Sunday (paramedics working in London, right). Britain is still being hammered by the consequences of huge numbers of people catching the coronavirus before the country went into total lockdown last week. Experts say it could take another couple of weeks before the benefits of social distancing start to show in NHS statistics - but they insist that the outbreak will taper off and the daily numbers will start to fall. And insiders say the NHS, by and large, is coping well with the strain so far and there are still intensive care beds and ventilators available for patients who need them. Public Health England said 173,784 people have now been tested for the coronavirus - 7,651 people were tested yesterday, Thursday, a total of 11,764 times.