UK records highest daily Covid-19 case rate since January
The number of people testing positive for coronavirus has surpassed 32,000 for the first time since January, according to the latest government figures.
In the latest daily update, there were 32,548 reported cases of the virus, up from 28,733 cases on Tuesday. The latest total has more than doubled from just over a week ago – where on 27 June just under 15,000 new cases were recorded.
The UK also recorded 33 deaths in the last 24 hour period, down from Tuesday, when 37 deaths were reported – the highest number since April.
Meanwhile, the number of people who have now received full vaccine protection in the UK equates to 50.5 per cent of the total UK population of more than 66.6m. The proportion of the UK’s adult population that is now double-vaxxed stands at 86.2 per cent.
The daily case rate is still well below the 100,000 daily figure that the new health secretary Sajid Javid on Tuesday warned the UK could reach once all restrictions are lifted.
He indicated that ministers expect the virus to surge once the country reaches stage four of the roadmap out of lockdown – and cautioned that the UK is about to enter “unchartered territory.”
Neil Ferguson, a Covid modeller and epidemiologist at Imperial College London, told the BBC’s Today programme that the PM’s announcement of the lifting of most restrictions from 19 July was a “slight gamble”, but justified.
“At the peak of the second wave, 50,000 cases would translate into something like 500 deaths, but that’s going to be much, much lower this time, more like 50 or so,” he said.
But Ferguson cautioned that policy will have to remain “flexible”, and their may be need for a “course correction later” if the UK ends up in something close to the worst case scenario that scientists were looking at.