Child, 5, announced as UK's youngest coronavirus victim as death toll reaches 4,313

A five-year-old child has died after testing positive for coronavirus, NHS England has said.

The child is among 637 people who tested positive for Covid-19 and have died, bringing the total number of confirmed reported deaths in hospitals in England to 3,939, NHS England said.

The oldest patient was 104, and 40 had no known underlying conditions, aged between 48 and 93. Their families have been informed.

NHS England said 212 of the deaths of patients were in the Midlands, with 127 in London, 97 in the North West, 73 in the North East and Yorkshire, 70 in the East of England, 41 in the South East and 17 in the South West.

In total, 4,313 people across the UK have died from coronavirus.

This afternoon it also emerged that five London bus workers with Covid-19 have now died.

Unite union regional secretary Peter Kavanagh said: "Each of these deaths is a terrible tragedy and the thoughts of everyone at Unite goes to the families of the bus workers who have died of coronavirus.

"Unite will assist the families of our members in every possible way during this terrible time."

The UK’s coronavirus death toll is climbing at a rate steeper than Italy’s, new data has shown.

It shows that London is now witnessing more daily deaths than Wuhan, the Chinese city where the global pandemic first began, at the same stage of its outbreak.

The number of lives being lost daily in Italy and Spain - the two European countries worst hit by the deadly bug - is however beginning to plateau, according to analysis by the Financial Times.

Sadly the World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that more and more young people are becoming critically ill after contracting coronavirus.

Some of these victims have no underlying health conditions.

Speaking at a press conference in Geneva yesterday, Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s coronavirus technical lead, said: “We are seeing more and more younger individuals who are experiencing severe disease.

“I should say, overall, most of the people who are experiencing severe disease and ending up in ICU are people of older age, and are people who have underlying conditions.”

Today’s figures from the Department of Health show that the number of new people tested daily in the UK for coronavirus has slipped back below 10,000.

A total of 9,406 new people were reported as being tested in the 24 hours to 9am April 4.

For the previous two days, the equivalent figure was above 10,000.

Earlier today government advisor Professor Neil Ferguson said the current lockdown could be over by the end of May - but also warned there could be 'weeks' of new infections if people ignore social distancing rules to bask in the sunshine this weekend.

Prof Ferguson said the government would only contemplate relaxing lockdown measures once case numbers are lower.

He added: "We want to move to a situation where at least by the end of May that we're able to substitute some less intensive measures, more based on technology and testing, for the complete lockdown we have now."