London (AFP)

The UK has passed Saturday the 20,000 hospital deaths of patients with the new coronavirus, a course "deeply tragic", said Interior Minister Priti Patel, calling on the population to "be strong" to continue containment.

According to the latest report from the Ministry of Health, 20,319 people who contracted Covid-19 disease died in British hospitals, 813 more than in the previous assessment provided on Friday.

But this figure does not reflect in real time the evolution of the pandemic, because, ensures the University of Oxford, a third of the 711 additional deaths recorded in England date more than a week.

In March, health officials said a final death toll of 20,000 or less would be a "good result".

"It is a very sad day for the nation," said Steven Powis, one of the heads of British health services.

To the figures communicated daily must be added the deaths in retirement homes, which, according to representatives of the sector, number in the thousands.

The number of people tested positive amounted to 148,377 (+4,913).

Confined since March 23, a measure extended at least until May 7, the United Kingdom awaits the return to the helm of Boris Johnson, who, hit hard by the new coronavirus, is recovering from his exit from the hospital on April 12.

At a time when some European countries are starting to begin to relax containment measures, Interior Minister Priti Patel has ruled that it would be "irresponsible" to come forward, for example, on a date for the reopening of schools. "It is too early," said Steven Powis.

Pounding daily that it makes decisions based on the advice of scientists, the executive has witnessed a controversy surrounding the presence of Dominic Cummings, a controversial adviser often portrayed as the evil genius of Boris Johnson, at several committee meetings scientist responsible for advising the government.

If Downing Street, sparking the media in passing, stresses that political advisers have "no active role" in this committee, the Labor opposition judges that this case comes to undermine the British confidence in the independence of this organism.

The government plans, when the number of cases of contamination will have clearly decreased, to deploy a plan to trace the contacts of sick people or showing symptoms, via an application of the public health system, in order to avoid a second wave.

In terms of research, health authorities have given the go-ahead to tests to study the path of the blood plasma (the liquid part of the blood that concentrates antibodies after an illness) of patients cured to treat patients with Covid-19 , the health ministry announced on Saturday. 5,000 seriously ill patients could be treated in the UK, according to the government.

"If you are asked to participate, please do so. It is painless," said Minister of Health Matt Hancock, himself cured of the disease, in a tweet with photo. showing him in the middle of a blood test.

Plasma tests and studies have already started in China, the United States and France.

Faced with a halving of hospital emergency room admissions in April, the British public health service, the NHS, called on patients with conditions other than Covid-19 to not hesitate to visit these services when their condition requires.

The health authorities fear indeed an excess mortality which would result from the reluctance of the patients to go to the hospital for fear of contracting this disease or clogging up the hospital services.

© 2020 AFP