insiderblmThe number of new daily confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK has topped 60,000 for the first time since the pandemic started.
According to government figures on Tuesday, the number of people who tested positive was 60,916.
One in 50 people in private households in England had Covid last week – and one in 30 in London, according to estimates based on the latest data.
A further 830 people have also died within 28 days of a positive test.
It comes as England and Scotland announced new strict lockdowns, with people told to stay at home.
At a press conference at Downing Street on Tuesday, Boris Johnson said 1.3 million people had now been vaccinated in the UK – including 23% of over 80s in England, some 650,000 people.
But he said more than one million people were currently infected – with the number of patients in hospitals 40% higher than in the first peak.
The government’s chief medical adviser Prof Chris Whitty cited the Office for National Statistics’ random sampling data for England as showing how widespread the virus is.
“We’re now into a situation where across the country as a whole, roughly one in 50 people have got the virus, higher in some parts of the country, lower in others,” he said.
That latest estimates include:
- One in 30 for London
- One in 45 for south-east England, eastern England and north-west England
- One in 50 for the East Midlands
- One in 60 for north-east England
- One in 65 for the West Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber
- One in 135 for south-west England
The number of new daily cases has consistently been above 50,000 since 29 December.
Back in the first peak of the pandemic in the spring, the number of daily confirmed cases never went above 7,000.
However, it is thought the true number of cases then was much higher but not picked up because testing capacity was limited. It was estimated there were about 100,000 new infections a day at the end of March – but there was not the testing to detect it.
Hospital admissions of people with Covid-19 in England also reached another record high on Tuesday, NHS England figures show.
At a hospital in Lincolnshire, a “critical” incident has been declared after a sharp rise in patients requiring admission.
And potentially life-saving cancer operations have been put on hold at a major London NHS trust because of the number of beds taken by Covid patients.
However, Cancer Research UK said such cancellations did not appear to be widespread across the country.
In a statement after the case numbers were released, Public Health England medical director Yvonne Doyle said the rapid rise in cases was “highly concerning and will sadly mean yet more pressure on our health services in the depths of winter”.
