UK suffers highest increase in cases since early May with 4,000 infections
Coronavirus cases have soared by almost 4,000 in the highest daily rise since early May.
The Department of Health say 3,991 new cases were recorded in the past 24 hours.
The total number of confirmed cases now stands at 378, 219, while the death toll has risen to 41, 684 after 20 more people died.
Today is another big jump in infections following a surge of 3,105 cases yesterday and 2,621 on Monday. The weekend also saw 3,500 cases recorded on Saturday and 3,300 on Sunday.
A new ‘rule of six’ was brought into force this week in a bid to drive down infections.
Reports today claimed that if the crackdown on social gatherings doesn’t work, the whole of the UK could face a 10pm curfew and pubs could be forced to close early.
Boris Johnson has insisted schools will be the last to shut if another form of national lockdown is brought in.
A member of the government’s scientific advisory board (SAGE) said today that in order to keep schools open, a wide range of other measures should be introduced to stop a ‘major second wave’.
‘We have to think about doing that right now – which we are starting to do,’ they told ITV, warning that waiting for the death rate to go up again ‘would be trouble’.
On Sunday, figures showed the number of people being admitted to hospital for Covid-19 was the highest since the beginning of July.
Many hospital workers have reported a spike in demand this week due to issues with the government’s testing system.,
The shortage of tests has caused more people to attend A&E with Covid-19 symptoms – while many health workers are simultaneously being forced to self-isolate because they can’t check whether they have the virus.
Today, Boris Johnson finally admitted there isn’t enough testing capacity.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.