The UK today announced 215 more Covid-19 deaths, taking the official number of coronavirus victims to 38,376 - but it is the lowest Saturday total since lockdown began.
Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden announced the figure today at Downing Street's daily press conference, where he also revealed 2,445 more people had tested positive for the virus.
A total of 272,826 Britons have now been officially diagnosed with the viral disease, but millions more cases have been missed due to a lack of widespread testing.
Today's death figure marks the lowest Saturday rise since March 21, three days before the country went into lockdown, when there were just 56 coronavirus fatalities.
It is down significantly from the record high of 1,115 recorded on Saturday April 18 during the peak of the crisis. For comparison, there were 282 deaths last Saturday.
But despite the continued downward trend, three of the Government's coronavirus scientists claim the UK is lifting restrictions too soon.
The reproduction 'R' rate - the average number of people an infected patient passes the virus to - is sitting between 0.7 and 0.9 and if it breaches 1 then the outbreak could spiral back out of control.
Ministers are trying to juggle both keeping the R below 1 - to extinguish the spread of infection - and fire up the economy and return to normal life.
The new lockdown rules will allow the public to travel to beauty spots to sunbathe with members of their household, or to meet one person from another household at a two-metre distance from Monday.
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