Essex coronavirus cases have risen to 706 – a jump of 39 cases in a day.

The latest figures show there are 547 cases in the Essex County Council area, a further 76 positive cases in Southend and 83 in Thurrock.

This means the total amount of cases in all of Essex stands at 706, a 39 case rise from 667 cases the day before.

A total of 3,605 patients have died in hospital after testing positive for coronavirus in the UK as of 5pm on Thursday, the Department of Health said, up by 684 from 2,921 the day before.

Today's figures from the Department of Health show that for the second day running more than 10,000 new people were tested in the UK for coronavirus.

A total of 10,590 new people were reported as being tested in the 24 hours to 9am April 3.

The equivalent figure for April 2 was 10,215.

The total number of people in the UK tested since the outbreak began is now 173,784.

This is the equivalent of around 261 people in every 100,000, or 0.3% of the population.

The number of coronavirus-related hospital deaths reported by the Department of Health stood at 3,605 as of 5pm April 2.

It took 19 days for this number to pass 300. It has taken further 11 days to pass 3,000.

Meanwhile, the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK has taken two weeks to go from just under 4,000 (3,983 as of 9am March 20) to just under 40,000 (38,168 as of 9am April 3).