Britain's Covid cases are continuing to climb with more than 53,000 recorded today, official Government data revealed.
UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) data shows there were 53,945 positive tests in the last 24 hours, up 14.2 per cent on the 47,240 recorded last Thursday.
It was the second day in a row cases have increased and only the second time in more than a month cases breached the 50,000 mark.
But the number of people dying with the virus fell to 141, down 4.1 per cent on the 147 fatalities recorded last week.
And hospitalisations also fell, with 700 admissions recorded on Sunday, the latest date data is available for. It was down six per cent on the 745 seen the previous week.
Meanwhile, separate data from a surveillance study today showed symptomatic Covid cases in the UK rose by nearly five per cent to more than 80,000 per day last week.
The ZOE symptom-tracking study estimated that 80,483 people fell ill on any given day in the week ending November 27, based on test results from around 650,000 volunteers.
It marked a rise of 4.9 per cent compared to the estimate on the previous week and means one in 61 Britons suffered a symptomatic infection at any given time, King's College London scientists who run the study said.
But infections started to fall in the over-55s, in a clear sign of the effect of booster vaccine doses — with more than 19million people now having had a third dose according to Government data.
No10 unveiled its new scheme to vaccinate all over-18s by the end of January on Tuesday, with the UK today buying 114million more doses in an effort to stop the spread of the new supermutant Omicron variant.
The ZOE symptom-tracking study estimated that 80,483 people fell ill on any given day in the week ending November 27, based on test results from around 650,000 volunteers
On another day of coronavirus chaos:
Data revealed the Omicron variant has outpaced Delta to become the dominant strain in South Africa in just a week; Scientists said they believe they have solved the mystery behind the extremely rare blood clots caused by the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine; Britain's medicines watchdog approved a second Covid antibody drug, which the UK Government has ordered 100,000 doses of; Boris Johnson received his coronavirus booster shot as he said the nation is 'building ever higher the wall of protection' against the Omicron variant; The Prime Minister urged urged Britons not to call off their Christmas parties after his
