BRITAIN has recorded the highest coronavirus death toll in Europe after 693 people died across a single day.

Testing again failed to meet the 100,000 target set by the Government, which was met at the end of April but has since dropped off.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said 84,806 tests were carried out on Monday.

Some 194,990 people have tested positive for coronavirus, an increase of 4,406 from 24 hours earlier.

The government reports 29,427 people have now died after testing positive for Covid-19.

Mr Raab dismissed international comparisons which put the UK as having the gravest death toll from coronavirus in Europe.

He said: "All I would just say is first of all 29,427 lives lost is a massive tragedy, something in this country, on this scale, in this way, we've never seen before.

"I don't think we'll get a real verdict on how well countries have done until the pandemic is over and particularly until we've got comprehensive international data on all cause of mortality."

But, in his defence of the Government, Mr Raab said there are different ways of counting fatalities.

"We now publish data that includes all deaths in all settings and not all countries do that so I'm not sure that the international comparison works unless you reliably know that all countries are measuring in the same way," he said.

"And it also depends on how good frankly countries are at gathering their statistics and our own Office for National Statistics is widely acknowledged as a world leader.

"I don't think you can make the international comparisons you're suggesting at this stage, at least I don't think you can make them reliably."

At the daily coronavirus briefing, Mr Raab said the next phase of the response to coronavirus would be to create a sustainable "new normal" which would protect the NHS but also safeguard the economy.

Mr Raab told the Downing Street briefing: "As we consider the decisions that we will take next to protect life but also to protect our way of life, it's now clear that the second phase will be different.

"We will need to adjust to a new normal where we as a society adapt to safe new ways to work, to travel, to interact and to go about our daily lives.

"We have never experienced anything like this first stage of Covid-19 in terms of the scale of the lives lost but also the lockdown it has required.

"As we go forward we want to make sure that the next phase is more comfortable, is more sustainable and prevents lasting damage to jobs and livelihoods."