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Another 357 COVID-19 patients have died in Britain as of Thursday afternoon, bringing the total coronavirus-related death toll in the country to 40,261, the British Department of Health and Social Care said Friday.

The figures include deaths in all settings, including hospitals, care homes and the wider community.

As of Friday morning, 283,311 people have tested positive for the disease in Britain, a daily increase of 1,650, said the department.

Earlier in the day, British government's chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance told reporters in a virtual briefing that the R-number -- the average number of people that will contract coronavirus from an infected person -- for England was between 0.7 and one, while it remained between 0.7 and 0.9 for Britain as a whole.

The latest data suggested that northwestern England is an area for concern and some regions may have R-number above one, at which point the epidemic will begin to grow in these communities, the Guardian newspaper reported.