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3:36 a.m.: UK coronavirus death toll becomes highest in Europe

The United Kingdom has overtaken Italy as the country with the highest death toll from the novel coronavirus in Europe.

Of the more than 196,000 people in the U.K. who have been diagnosed with COVID-19, at least 29,501 have now died, according to a count kept by Johns Hopkins University. Italy's death toll stands at 29,315.

\"PHOTO:
Alberto Pezzali/AP
PHOTO: A woman wearing a face mask walks down the stairs at the end of Westminster Bridge in London on May 1, 2020, as the United Kingdom continues its lockdown to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.
>

The U.K. now has one of the largest single-country tolls in the world, second only to the United States where 71,078 people have died from COVID-19.

ABC News' Ben Gittleson, Ahmad Hemingway, Ben Siu, Mina Kaji, Aaron Katersky, Alina Lobzina, Ivan Pereira, Eric Strauss, Gina Sunseri and Christine Theodorou contributed to this report.

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