British boxer Anthony Yarde reveals his grandmother has died from coronavirus

British light-heavyweight Anthony Yarde says his grandmother has died from the coronavirus just a few days after his father’s death as a result of the pandemic.

The 28-year-old fighter appealed to people to ‘just stay home’ as he announced that his grandmother had died yesterday.

‘It’s serious!’ Yarde wrote on social media. ‘People are still going out when they don’t need to. I know there’s a lot of opinions about Covid-19 and I have mine but I just know opinions ain’t worth risking your life and others. Just stay home.’

Yarde’s father, who the boxer said had been ‘fit with no health issues’, died last week.

Yarde’s promoter Frank Warren wrote on Twitter: ‘We are extremely sad to learn that Anthony Yarde has now lost his Nan to the Coronavirus.

‘We can’t begin to imagine what Anthony and his family are going through and our sincere condolences go out to them.

‘Please listen to his heartfelt personal plea, stay at home to save lives.’

Yarde’s next fight was set to be against Britain’s Lyndon Arthur on April 11, but the event has been delayed until 11 July because of the pandemic.

Today’s 684 death toll is another record one-day high. Yesterday there were a record 569 new fatalities announced by the Department of Health.

The new numbers mean the number of people dead from COVID-19 in the UK has risen five-fold in a week, from just 759 last Friday, March 27. 

The numbers behind the UK’s crisis have escalated rapidly over the past seven days and Health Secretary Matt Hancock today said the virus ‘continues its grim march’. He admitted that next week is likely to be worse still, potentially topping out at more than 1,000 deaths per day by Easter Sunday.

Britain is still being hammered by the consequences of huge numbers of people catching the coronavirus before the country went into total lockdown last week. The increases being seen each day are ‘expected’, scientists say.

Experts say it could take another couple of weeks before the benefits of social distancing start to show in NHS statistics – but they insist that the outbreak will taper off and the daily numbers will start to fall.

In other developments in the worldwide coronavirus crisis:

• Two NHS nurses – Areema Nasreen and Aimee O’Rourke – died after catching the coronavirus, taking the death toll of frontline health workers to seven;
• The Government is enrolling COVID-19 patients in three major clinical trials in NHS hospitals to test what types of treatments can be used;
• Good Morning Britain presenter Kate Garraway’s husband, Derek Draper, 52, is in intensive care with a severe case of COVID-19;
• The Queen will address the nation in a televised speech on Sunday;
• Teachers will submit ‘carefully considered’ GCSE and A-Level grades for their students after coronavirus cancelled exams;
• Premier League clubs will ask their players to take wage cuts of up to 30 per cent and will donate £20million to the NHS;
• Beijing’s chief medical adviser on coronavirus, Zhong Nanshan, said the world is heading for disaster if the US can’t get a grip on its outbreak; 
• The funeral of Britain’s youngest coronavirus victim was held today without his family present because they are in isolation after developing symptoms;
• The Prince of Wales opened the new NHS Nightingale Hospital for intensive care coronavirus patients, saying it was a message of hope;
• Health chiefs urged Britons to stay at home to help fight the coronavirus pandemic this weekend as a mini-heatwave is due to sweep the country.