A TASKFORCE has been launched to work out how the UK's sports will recover from the coronavirus lockdown.

The announcement was made at the daily Downing Street Press conference by Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden.

Mr Dowden started by revealing that 35,704 people had died in hospitals, care homes and the wider community after testing positive for coronavirus in the UK as of 5pm on Tuesday, up by 363 from 35,341 the day before.

In the 24-hour period up to 9am on Wednesday, 177,216 tests were carried out or dispatched, with 2,472 positive results.

Overall a total of 2,962,227 tests have been carried out, and 248,293 cases have been confirmed positive.

Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden set out details of the taskforce being set up to help the arts, sports and digital sectors respond to the crisis.

He told the Downing Street press conference: "Finding creative, crowd-free ways to navigate coronavirus is the biggest challenge for our recreation and leisure sectors right now."

The taskforce will involve former footballer Alex Scott, former BBC and ITV chairman Lord Grade, English National Ballet artistic director Tamara Rojo and tech entrepreneur Baroness Lane-Fox.

Mr Dowden said: "Normal life, as we have known it, is still clearly a long way off and the path to get there is a narrow one.

"But these things will return, when it's safe for them to do so, and thanks to the same drive and creativity that makes a great performance or a great piece of art.

"I really think that when they do, and when we have overcome this crisis together, we will appreciate them that much more."

NHS England national medical director Professor Stephen Powis said the number of coronavirus patients in hospital had fallen below 10,000 for the first time since March.

He told the daily Downing Street press conference: "I would highlight that the number of people in hospital is now below 10,000.

"I think that's the first time since March that we've seen a fall that has come down below 10,000 in terms of the people who are actively in hospital who test positive for Covid-19."

Professor Powis also said there had been a "slow increase" in vehicle movements, which he said was probably due to people returning to work, but that public transport usage remained low.

Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden denied the Government had "glossed over" past mistakes with the spread of coronavirus in care homes.

He told the daily Downing Street briefing: "It's categorically not the case that we have glossed over this.

"Of course, in any public health crisis like this there will be a time for lessons to be learned afterwards but I think the public rightly want us now to be focusing on dealing with this."