Daily Covid cases rise by 14% in a week to 43,676 but hospital admissions drop ...

Covid cases continued to rise across the UK today but deaths and hospitalisations are still firmly trending downwards, official data shows.

Another 43,676 cases have been recorded in the last 24 hours, a rise of 14.1 per cent on the 38,263 confirmed positive cases last Wednesday.

Meanwhile, 722 Britons infected with the virus sought NHS care on Saturday, the latest date figures are available for, marking a 7.3 per cent drop week-on-week.

And daily Covid fatalities fell by a quarter, with 149 people dying within 28 days of testing positive for the virus.

Both measurements lag two to three weeks behind the trend in cases due to a delay between a person catching Covid and becoming severely unwell. 

Cases have been trending upwards in the UK for the past fortnight after schools went back from the half-term break at the start of the month.  

Infections are concentrated among younger age groups, while booster jabs are driving down cases among the over-60s.

It comes as British experts have sounded the alarm over a new Covid variant that is the most mutated version of the virus yet. The strain, which has not been spotted in the UK, carries 32 mutations, many of which suggest it is highly transmissible and vaccine-resistant.  

But more promisingly, researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) today estimated England would suffer the fewest hospitalisations compared to other European nations, if everyone in the country caught Covid right now.

Department of Health figures show England recorded 36,550 cases in the last 24 hours and 2,154 people tested positive in Wales, while 3,080 infections were registered in Scotland and 1,931 were recorded in Northern Ireland.

Across the four nations, 9.9million infections have been confirmed since the pandemic began last March. But the real number will be many millions more, due to the limited testing capacity at the start of the Covid crisis and not everyone who catches the virus getting tested.

Cases rates are highest and rising fastest among younger groups, with 1,090 per 100,000 10 to 14-year-olds testing positive in the seven days up to November 18. Infections jumped by a third in a week among the age group.

Despite rising case numbers, hospitalisations and deaths remain less than half the level recorded at the same time last year.

Some 722 Covid-infected Britons were admitted to hospitals across the UK on Saturday, while 7,874 people who have the virus were under NHS care yesterday.

For comparison, 1,552 Covid patients were hospitalised on the same day last year and a total 17,680 were in hospital.

And 149 deaths were recorded in the last 24 hours, compared to 464 on the same day last year. 

Meanwhile, 26,822 first doses and 22,002 second doses were administered across the UK, meaning 50.8million over-12s  (88.4 per cent) have had at least one injection and 46.2million (80.4 per cent) are fully immunised.

Some 365,152 more Britons came forward for booster doses in the last 24 hours, meaning 16million over-40s, frontline workers and vulnerable people are now triple-jabbed. 

But scientists today raised the alarm over a new Covid variant — dubbed B.1.1.529 — that is believed to have emerged in Botswana that is the most mutated version of the virus yet.

It comes as data from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) found England would only suffer 35,000 Covid hospitalisations if the entire population got infected right now compared to a quarter of a million in Germany.

The analysis suggests the NHS is unlikely to be overwhelmed by the virus even in the event of a major surge.

Researchers looked at vaccination rates and cumulative infection numbers in 18 countries in Europe to estimate levels of immunity and work out what would happen if everyone was suddenly exposed to the virus. 

England would be the least affected in the hypothetical scenario with 34,720 admissions and 6,200 deaths. Even though the model only looked at England, there is nothing to suggest Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland would be hit harder. 

There have been more than 500,000 Covid hospitalisations in England alone in the last 18 months, for comparison, with just over 140,000 dying with the virus.

The study estimated around 280,000 people in Germany would be hospitalised with the virus — the most of any country in Europe — while Romania would suffer around 150,000.

The researchers include Dr Rosanna Barnard, Dr Nick Davies and Dr Adam Kucharski — three members of SAGE whose modelling has been instrumental in Government policy during the pandemic.

They said higher levels of prior infection and the success of the booster rollout in England meant the country is likely to be better protected than its neighbours this winter.

Britain was branded the 'sick man of Europe' this summer after it dropped all restrictions in England in July and saw cases spiral to as much as 50,000 a day. But experts now say opening up early allowed the country to frontload its cases, meaning more people now have immunity than in Europe. 

Scientists also believe Britain's longer dosage gap between vaccines — 12 weeks compared to three weeks on the continent — has afforded Brits longer lasting immunity from jabs.