LONDON, June 18. /TASS/. The number of coronavirus infections in the United Kingdom has topped 300,000, while coronavirus-related fatalities have exceeded 42,200, the national health department said Thursday, adding that 135 deaths were registered in the past 24 hours.

"300,469 people have tested positive. As of 5pm on 17 June, of those who tested positive for coronavirus in the UK, across all settings, 42,288 have died," the statement reads. Moreover, the country carried out 7.2 million coronavirus tests.

On Wednesday, the health department informed about 183 deaths. The British government points to the continuous trend of decreasing daily fatalities and infections observed for two months now.

In late December 2019, Chinese officials notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus - named COVID-19 by the WHO - have been reported in every corner of the globe.

On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. According to the latest statistics, over 8,450,000 people have been infected worldwide and more than 450,000 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 4,430,000 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.