UK Covid death toll rises by 1,041 – a record increase for second wave

For the first time, the government has announced more than 1,000 Covid deaths in its daily report on the virus, and revealed another record rise in cases. It said a further 1,041 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Wednesday. It brings the UK’s death toll to 77,346.

Another 62,322 new cases were also reported, surpassing Tuesday’s record, after more than a week when more than 50,000 new cases were announced every day.

Retrospective analysis of dates of death from Covid showed there were several days in April when more than 1,000 were recorded. But this is the first time that more than 1,000 coronavirus deaths have been announced in daily figures.

NHS records showed that the worst day of the pandemic so far was 8 April, when a record 1,445 people died from Covid-19 in 24 hours. But on 8 April itself, 938 deaths were announced in the daily set of figures.

The latest death toll confirms that the UK is once again the the worst-hit country in Europe. Italy, which for the last few weeks had recorded more Covid deaths, now more than a 1,000 deaths fewer than the UK, according to a tally run by Johns Hopkins University. Italy’s new infection rate has been running at around 10,000, compared with more than 50,000 in the UK, where a highly infectious new strain of the virus was first detected.

Earlier this week, scientific advisers warned that there could be more than 100,000 Covid-related deaths before the end of the month based on current projections.

Prof Graham Medley, a member of the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, said: “It is almost inevitable that we will reach 100,000 deaths, and there is a chance that this will happen before the end of January if current rates of transmission continue.”

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, show that there have now been 93,000 deaths involving Covid-19 in the UK.