UK Covid cases SURGE to highest-ever daily increase - 36,804 infections and 691 deaths

COVID cases in the UK surged on Tuesday to the highest-ever daily rise as positive tests doubled in just a week.

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The Government said a further 691 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Tuesday, bringing the UK total to 68,307. Separate figures published by the UK's statistics agencies for deaths where Covid-19 has been mentioned on the death certificate, together with additional data on deaths that have occurred in recent days, showed there have now been 84,000 deaths involving Covid-19 in the UK.

It said that, as of 9am on Tuesday, there had been a further 36,804 lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK.

It brings the total number of cases in the UK to 2,110,314.

Earlier today, NHS England said a further 405 people who tested positive for coronavirus had died in hospital in England, bringing the total number of confirmed deaths reported in hospitals to 46,983.

Patients were aged between 26 and 100.

Covid update UK

Covid update UK (Image: GETTY)

All except 13, aged between 54 and 90, had known underlying health conditions.

The deaths were between July 2 and December 21.

Twenty other deaths were reported with no positive Covid-19 test result.

The rise in cases over recent weeks caused Prime Minister Boris Johnson to put London and parts of the South East into Tier 4 restrictions, meaning lesuire and hospitality businesses were forced to close over the festive period.

This was due to a new mutant strain of Covid being found in these areas that Mr Johnson said could be up to 70 percent more transmissible.

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Boris Johnson placed London and parts of the south east into Tier 4

Boris Johnson placed London and parts of the south east into Tier 4 (Image: GETTY)

But the new restrictions lead to a domino effect of EU members states closing their borders to the UK including France, Germany and Belgium. 

The European Commission has now recommended a joint approach from EU members after individual countries imposed emergency restrictions.

On Sunday, France closed its border to lorries crossing the Channel, leading to more than 1,500 HGVs being trapped in Kent.


The commission said light and train bans "should be discontinued given the need to ensure essential travel and avoid supply chain disruptions".

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The UK has been badly hit by the coronavirus pandemic

The UK has been badly hit by the coronavirus pandemic (Image: EXPRESS)

EU justice commissioner Didier Reynders said "member states should take co-ordinated action to discourage non-essential travel between the UK and the EU".

But "at the same time, blanket travel bans should not prevent thousands of EU and UK citizens from returning to their homes".

Transport commissioner Adina Valean said: "Within the EU, it is crucial that transport workers are exempted from any restrictive measures."

Talks between the UK and France to resolve the crisis at the Channel have included discussions on testing HGV drivers.

The EU's recommendation also suggested rapid tests should be used to avoid disruption.

Vallance warns of 'increased’ measures due to COVID strain

Mr Johnson told a Downing Street press conference yesterday: "We are working with our friends across the Channel to unblock the flow of trade as fast as possible.

"And the Government at all levels is communicating with our friends in Paris.

"I have just spoken to President Macron, we had a very good call.

"And we both understand each other's positions and want to resolve these problems as fast as possible."

During the press conference, Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Patrick Vallance added the new strain is spreading rapidly, with more restrictions likely to be on the way.

He said: "Nervtag (New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Group) met again today, a lot of work was done over the weekend trying to bring in more groups to look at the problem and to look at the new data that's become available.

"That reinforced the view from Friday that this is transmitting more readily, that it doesn't - as far as we can see - alter the course of the disease, and the work, as I said, in terms of the immune response is ongoing but there's no reason to suspect at the moment that there's a change there.

"Those data will come out and Nervtag minutes will be published but the conclusion was that the experts have high confidence in the fact that this is transmitting more readily.

"That again reinforces the point that it's important to get ahead of this and to make sure that the tiering system is adequate to stop things going, and not to watch it and react in retrospect.

"Given that we're entering a period of inevitable mixing, I think there will be some increases in numbers over the next few weeks."