The UK has recorded a new daily record of coronavirus cases, after reporting 35,928 new infections and 326 deaths in the last 24 hours. The previous record was set on Thursday, but 11,000 of the 35,383 new cases that day were blamed on a backlog in Wales.
It comes as countries across Europe closed their border to the UK, with concerns mounting about a ‘mutant’ strain of Covid-19 thought to be more contagious being identified.
Fears about the new strain led to London and parts of the south and south-east of England being plunged into tier and Christmas plans being cancelled in a bombshell announcement by the Prime Minister yesterday.
The latest figures bringing the UK total death toll to 67,401 and the number of confirmed cases since the pandemic began to 2,040,147. But separate figures published by the UK’s statistics agencies combined with additional data on deaths in recent days show there have now been 83,000 deaths involving Covid-19 in the UK.
Earlier today, NHS England said 266 people who tested positive for coronavirus had died in hospitals in the country, bringing the total number of confirmed deaths reported in the setting to 46,388. Patients were aged between 42 and 101. All except seven, aged between 53 and 90, had known underlying health conditions. The deaths were between November 8 and December 19, it said. 13 other deaths were reported with no positive Covid-19 test result.
