The number of people who have died in hospitals in England after testing positive for COVID-19 has risen by 665 to 16,272, health officials said Wednesday.

Those who died were aged between 26 and 102, and 26 had no known underlying health condition, National Health Service (NHS) England said.

Sixty-nine people who worked for Britain’s NHS have died of COVID-19 while the number of staff in care homes for the elderly who have died from the disease is unknown, foreign minister Dominic Raab said Wednesday.

The government is under pressure over accusations it has failed to deliver personal protective equipment to all the medical and care staff who require it.

"We've delivered 1 billion items of personal protective equipment and tens of millions have been distributed via the devolved administrations (semi-autonomous governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland)," Raab told Parliament.

"We recognize though that we have got to strive even harder in this incredibly difficult and competitive international environment to source the equipment," he said.