An-Najah News - The number of deaths from coronavirus in the United Kingdom rose by 26 percent in one day, according to new figures on Tuesday that a senior cabinet minister described as shocking and disturbing.

The government said 1,789 people had died in hospitals from coronavirus as of 16:00 GMT on Monday, an increase of 381 from Sunday, the largest rise in absolute terms yet.

"The increase in the number of deaths is deeply shocking and disturbing ,minister Michael Gove said at a news conference, adding that it was not possible to predict when fatalities would peak.

"It depends on the actions of all of us," he added. "We can delay that peak; we can flatten the curve through our own particular actions."

The UK initially took a gradual approach to containing the virus compared with European countries such as Italy.

"The increase in the number of deaths is deeply shocking, disturbing [and] moving," Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove said at a news conference, adding that it was not possible to predict when fatalities would peak.

"It depends on the actions of all of us," he added. "We can delay that peak; we can flatten the curve through our own particular actions."

The UK initially took a gradual approach to containing the virus compared with European countries such as Italy.

But Prime Minister Boris Johnson imposed stringent controls after projections showed a quarter of a million people could die. Johnson has since become the first leader of a major power to announce a positive test result for coronavirus.

The UK lags behind Italy, Spain and France in terms of the number of deaths, but they are still doubling approximately every 3.5 days.

While that is similar to the trajectory of Italy - the world's worst-hit country - when it was reporting similar numbers of deaths just over two weeks ago, British officials said on Tuesday that they saw tentative reasons for optimism.