The UK’s coronavirus death toll rose by 671 – the largest increase on a Sunday – with 38,598 more people testing positive for the disease.
Deaths continue to rise, but the number of new cases is down 30% last Sunday.
The government’s official toll is 89,261 deaths within 28 days of a positive test, but the actual total is over 104,000 when death certificates mentioning Covid-19 are included.
There have been 7,830 deaths in the past seven days, up 23.1%, or 1,467 deaths, from the previous week (January 11th-17th).
It’s the first day since last Monday there have been less than 1,000 deaths, although totals tend to be lower on Sunday due to delays in reporting over the weekend.
The number of people who tested positive increased from 38,598 to 3,395,959. The daily total is considerably lower than that of the last two Sundays (54,940 cases on January 10th and 54,990 on January 3rd).
A total of 323,614 people have tested positive in the past seven days, down 22.5%, or 93,956 cases, from the previous week.
There were 37,475 Covid-19 patients in hospital in the UK on Thursday, the latest figure available. Just under 3,800 were ventilated on Friday.
The latest figures were announced after Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab promised that every adult in the UK will be offered a first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine by September.
The Foreign Minister said it would be “great” if the deployment could be faster but the government was working towards the early fall target.
Mr Raab’s pledge came amid dire warnings of ‘extreme pressure’ on the NHS – as it has been revealed that a coronavirus patient is admitted to hospital ‘every 30 seconds’ .
He told Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday: “Our goal is to have offered the entire adult population a first dose by September. If we can do it faster than that, all the better, but that’s the roadmap. ”
Mr Raab said the government hoped that 88% of those most at risk of dying from coronavirus would receive their first stroke by mid-February – with 99% in early spring.
After that, he suggested, lockdown restrictions could be gradually relaxed – with a possible return to the tiered system.
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