Britain's daily Covid cases continued to rise today, after health chiefs warned the country faces a difficult winter ahead.
Department of Health bosses posted 44,932 new infections, a spike of eight per cent on last Friday's total of 41,765. It was the tenth day in a row cases increased week-on-week.
The number of people being admitted to hospital with the virus also jumped, with 827 Covid patients seen on Monday, the latest date data is available for.
It was a rise of 6.3 per cent on the 778 recorded the week before and was the fifth week-on-week rise in a row.
But the number of people dying with the Covid fell today. Some 145 deaths were recorded today, down 3.3 per cent on the 150 recorded last Friday.
The damning figures come after separate official data showed Covid cases in England are now at their highest level since January, with one in 60 people infected on any given day last week.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimated 890,000 people in England – 1.63 per cent of the population – had the virus on October 9, up 13.2 per cent on the previous weekly figure.
Infections have not been as high since the country began to recover from the darkest days of the second wave in mid-January, when more than 1million people were thought to be carrying the virus.
Cases now appear to be rising in all cohorts, apart from those aged 35 to 49, where the ONS warned the trend is uncertain. But the latest hike has been fuelled by infections among pupils, with one in 12 youngsters aged 11 to 16 infected.
Meanwhile, separate data from the UK Health Security Agency, which took over from the now-defunct PHE, today showed the the R rate is the same level as last week – between a range of 0.9 and 1.1.
It comes as:
Health chiefs have launched an urgent probe into the PCR testing network after a blunder at a Wolverhampton lab saw up to 45,000 Covid-infected Britons wrongly told they did not have the virus; Transport Secretary Grant Shapps ruled out another Covid lockdown over Christmas as cases hit a three-month high; Official data today revealed Britons were more miserable than ever in the first year of the Covid pandemic; Furious parents hit out after pupils at £42,500-a-year Eton College were forced into self-isolation measures this week after an outbreak of Covid cases.It comes as separate data from the Department of Health – based on the Government's official testing programme as opposed to the random swabbing of thousands of Brits – showed cases reached a three-month high yesterday, with 45,066 new infections registered.
Top scientists have repeatedly warned of a fourth wave this winter, prompted by the return of pupils to classrooms and office workers, as well as the colder weather and darker evenings driving people to socialise inside where the virus finds it easier to spread.
England’s chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty yesterday claimed this winter will be 'exceptionally difficult' for the NHS, even if there is not a surge of infections. He warned the health service faces tough months ahead due to a resurgence of flu and other seasonal viruses.
No10 has plans in place to bring back restrictions if the roll-out of booster vaccines and jabs to over-12s fail to curb the impact of Covid on hospitals. And ministers have previously warned they could not rule out another lockdown as a last resort.
But despite the bleak figures, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps today dismissed introducing another lockdown at Christmas, saying there will 'be no issues' with seeing loved
