Coronavirus: Latest updates from England on 4 April - BBC News
Bringing you the latest news from across England about the coronavirus pandemic.
A new high in UK deaths - but cases are slowing

The number of 708 deaths is a new high, but a fall in cases indicates the UK is slightly below trend. The drop in new confirmed cases from 4,450 on Friday to 3,735 cases shows a continued slowdown. New cases were growing by about 20% a day up to last weekend. In the last week, that slowed to about 10% a day. That's even after allowing for the expansion of testing to include NHS workers. Even if Saturday's fall is followed by rises, it is evidence that case growth is slowing. The figure of 708 new deaths is a record high, but it is also below scientific expectations. Deaths have been growing by just under 25% each day. That means doubling every 3.5 days. A continuation of that would have taken us from 684 deaths on Friday to more than 800. The first day of a below trend growth is too soon to call a turn, but there is hope that the slowdown we're seeing in case numbers will eventually feed through into the numbers of new deaths.