THE latest official figures show that the death toll from coronavirus in the UK has now passed 40,000.

The figure includes more than 10,000 care home deaths.

According to the Department of Health and Social Care, as of Thursday morning at 9am 40,261 have died after testing positive for coronavirus.

A total of 283,311 people have tested positive for the virus.

The UK’s death toll is the worst in Europe, with Italy recording 30,739 deaths so far, Spain 26,744 and France 26,604, according to data collated by Johns Hopkins University.

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As of the same time, according to the figures there were 207,231 “tests” on Wednesday. This however is slightly misleading and does not relate to tests carried out, merely those available.

The chart put out by the Department of Health and Social Care says the number of people tested is “unavailable”.

UK Health Matt Hancock set himself a target of carrying out 100,000 test a day by the start of May before moving the goalposts and fudging the numbers to claim the target had been met.

Boris Johnson then set a target of 200,000 tests by the end of May.