NUMBERS of people testing positive for Covid-19 have stabilised, the government said today.

Dame Angela McLean, the deputy chief scientific adviser, said at the daily Downing Street press conference that the numbers of people testing positive for coronavirus were “pretty much stable and flat.”

She said that the numbers being treated in hospital for the disease were also stable across the country, having fallen in London for the past seven days.

“We are looking forward to seeing that pattern replicated across other regions of the country,” she said.

The number of recorded coronavirus hospital deaths in the UK increased by 449 to 16,509; the total of people tested positive for the virus rose by 4,676 to 124,743.

The daily rate of recorded hospital deaths for the five days up to last Saturday ranged from 761 to 888, before falling to 596 on Sunday.

The number of people testing positive has ranged from 4,603 to 5,850 over the past week, according to the website Worldometer.

Public Health England head Professor Yvonne Doyle acknowledged that the total number of those who die with Covid-19 was “undoubtedly” higher than statistics so far had recorded, suggesting that about 10 per cent of deaths took place outside hospital.

She said: “This week, as for last week, we will have a comprehensive view of that later in the week from [the Office for National Statistics].”

Chancellor Rishi Sunak hinted that easing lockdown restrictions remained some time away, saying “we are not there yet.”