Coronavirus cases FALL for second day in a row to 5,963 as 17 new deaths are recorded in last 24 hours

UK coronavirus cases have fallen for a second day in a row with infections dropping below 6,000 cases.

The total number of Covid-19 cases has now risen to 429,277 – up by 5,963 in the past 24 hours.

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Scotland recorded 344 new coronavirus infections today – a steep drop from yesterday’s 714.

Northern Ireland also recorded a drop for coronavirus cases after 187 new infections were reported – down from 319 yesterday.

In Wales, the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases fell slightly by 362 – a compared to the previous day’s 370 new cases.

Yesterday, cases rose by 6,042 and on Friday by 6,874 – making it two consecutive days where new infections have fell.

It is a 5.7 per cent drop in cases from yesterday.

However, this could be explained with a lag in weekend reporting.

There were 17 more deaths recorded overnight taking the total to 41,988.

It comes as:

• Burnley is England’s new coronavirus hotspot
• Panic buying is sweeping the UK again
• A Covid-19 risk calculator may be rolled out for Brits
• Manchester Metropolitan University students received food deliveries while under lockdown

In England, the total number of Covid-19 deaths rose to 29,908 today – up 17 from yesterday.

NHS England confirmed the patients were aged between 49 and 93 years old and one had no known underlying health conditions.  

In Scotland, one further death was recorded – bringing their tally at 2,511.

In Wales, no further deaths were recorded overnight, keeping the overall tally there to 1,612.

While in Northern Ireland, no one died in the past 24 hours from Covid-19 – keeping the total to 578.  

COVID CASES

It comes as coronavirus infections are not rising as fast as the “nightmare projection” from the Government’s chief scientists, data has revealed.

Last week, Sir Patrick Vallance and Professor Chris Whitty painted a bleak picture with cases doubling every seven days.

They said new confirmed cases could hit 50,000-a-day by October 13, adding it was not a “prediction”, but an example of what could happen.

But new analysis has revealed new infections of coronavirus are not rising quite as quickly as the experts feared.

The worrying possibility was presented using data from September 15, with 3,105 cases reported.

And while in the following days the country has seen the highest rise in new infections in months with cases tipping over 6,000, we have not yet started to see the scale of a rise experts worried about.

If we had started to follow the scientist’s feared trend, the country would have reached closer to 8-9,000 daily cases by now. Yesterday 6,024 new infections were reported.

According to the latest data, the virus is more likely to be doubling between every nine and 14 days – which means a worst case scenario could see 32,000-daily cases by October 13.

Or, if the virus infection rate continues to double every 14 days the country would see far less new cases, with around 18,000-a-day.

The coronavirus R rate has gone up again across the UK – and could be as high as 1.5, experts have warned.

Government scientists say the epidemic is continuing to grow with the Covid reproduction rate now somewhere between 1.2 and 1.5.

Regarding recent spikes in coronavirus cases, Public Health England medical director Yvonne Doyle said: “This is the highest number recorded and a stark warning for us all. The signals are clear.

“Positivity rates are rising across all age groups and we’re continuing to see spikes in rates of admission to hospital and critical care.

“We must all follow the new measures that have been bought in to help control the virus and download the new NHS Covid-19 App which is the fastest way of knowing when you’re at risk.”