Coronavirus: Five-year-old dies in the UK from COVID-19

As the UK recorded 708 deaths in one day from COVID-19, the health authority says the past 24 hours has claimed the country’s youngest death.

The UK has reported a record 708 daily deaths from COVID-19, including a five-year-old child, who is thought to be the country’s youngest victim.

The health ministry said 4313 people who tested positive for the virus in hospital had died as of 4pm local time on Friday while there were 41,903 confirmed cases as of Saturday morning, up 3735 from the day before.

The toll has been steadily increasing by more than 500 deaths a day this week and the country is bracing for an expected peak in the next week to 10 days.

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Social distancing in the UK has been implemented since late March. Picture: Christopher Furlong/Getty

A total of 637 of the latest deaths were in England, the National Health Service (NHS) said.

“Patients were aged between five years and 104 years old. Forty of the 637 patients (aged between 48 and 93 years old) had no known underlying health condition,” it said in a statement.

The NHS said it would not be giving further information about the five-year-old patient at the request of the family.

Last week, a 13-year-old boy from London, Ismail Mohamed Abdulwahab, died days after testing positive for COVID-19. His family said he had no underlying illnesses.

Senior minister Michael Gove told a daily briefing the teenager’s mother and siblings were now showing symptoms.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is in self-isolation after developing mild symptoms of the disease, ordered a three-week lockdown of the country on March 23 to try to cut infections.

But there has been concern warmer weather forecast for this weekend could tempt people from their homes to green spaces and public parks.

UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock says if people don’t abide by social distancing, people will continue to die. Picture: AP Photo/Matt Dunham

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has warned against any relaxation in social distancing, saying: “If we do, people will die.”

Imperial College London epidemiologist Neil Ferguson, who is advising the government, told BBC radio on Saturday a peak was expected around the Easter weekend.

“We still think things will plateau but we’ll be at quite high levels of infection for weeks and weeks rather than seeing quite a rapid decline as the type seen in China,” he said.

But he said that was dependent on people staying at home. If that happened, it could lead to less stringent measures in place “at least by the end of May”, he added.

In the UK, tests for coronavirus are carried out on the most serious cases that require hospital treatment, suggesting the true extent of confirmed cases and deaths is an underestimate.