The rapid spread of the virus has resulted in travel bans, major event cancellations, school closures, panic buying and countries grinding to a halt as self-isolation, social distancing and rationing are enforced.
The Department of Health said 1,019 people have now lost their lives to Covid-19, up from 759 yesterday.
In England, a further 247 people died, while Scotland recorded seven more deaths, Wales four and Northern Ireland two.
There are now 17, 089 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the UK, while 103,687 people have tested negative for the virus.
Another 889 people have died in Italy after contracting coronavirus.
The death toll in the country has risen to 10,023 over the last 24 hours – by far the highest worldwide and the latest in a series of increasingly tragic milestones.
Italy’s largest daily total was registered on Friday, when 919 people died. Prior to that, there were 712 deaths on Thursday, 683 on Wednesday, 743 on Tuesday and 602 on Monday.
There are now 92,472 confirmed cases, up from 86,498 on Friday. The country has the second highest number of cases, behind the United States. It surpassed China’s total on Friday.
