England's Health Secretary has said that on average there have been 37,258 cases of Covid in the last week.
Speaking at a coronavirus Downing Street briefing, Mr Hancock said the NHS is under "intense pressure", with 592 more deaths reported today alone.
He went on to describe the work being done by medics during the pandemic as 'relentless', adding that it is the "duty of all of us" to support them.
During the briefing Mr Hancock gave some detail on the vaccination process, describing it as 'truly a national effort'.
His remarks come just hours after Boris Johnson spoke of hopes of re-opening schools in England.
“There’s nothing I want to do more than reopen schools, I’ve fought to keep schools open for as long as I possibly could,” Mr Johnson said.
“We want to see schools back as fast as possible, we want to do that in a way that is consistent with fighting the epidemic and keeping the infection rate down.”
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said the Government would examine the data “and that will inform what we may or may not be able to ease from (February) 15 onwards”.
He added: “It has always been our intention to ease restrictions where we can from that point on the 15th, and schools are obviously our top priority.”
Mr Johnson said: “I do think now this massive achievement has been made of rolling out this vaccination programme, I think people want to see us making sure we don’t throw that away by having a premature relaxation and then another big surge of infection.”
Amid concerns of increasing support for Scottish independence, Health Secretary Matt Hancock insisted the “UK is stronger together in the fight against” coronavirus.
He told the Downing Street press conference that the Scottish Ambulance Service put out an appeal for extra help over the weekend and other nations “stepped forward”.
“Our health systems across the UK routinely work closely together offering support when it’s needed and from vaccines to ambulance services we are stronger together. And the UK is stronger together in the fight against this pandemic,” Mr Hancock said during a Downing Street press conference.
He said there are “early signs that the actions we are taking are working”, with the rise in case numbers slowing and falling in some areas such as London and Scotland.
