The UK's official coronavirus death toll has risen by 176 to a total of 43,906.
It is a week-on-week rise compared to last Wednesday where in the previous 24 hours 154 deaths were recorded.
Death figures remain stubbornly high with experts fearing the 'long tail' of Covid-19.
The Department of Health and Social Care also reported a further 829 infections, taking that total to more than 313,000.
This is also higher than the 653 cases recorded last Wednesday.
The number of tests recorded in the last 24 hours was 226,398 - although once again the government was unable to confirm how many people were tested.
The increase in both figures comes as England prepares to radically ease lockdown restrictions on Saturday.
Pubs, restaurants and hairdressers will be reopening across the country - although not yet in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.
And the stubbornly high numbers will add to fears of a second wave, with Leicester this week becoming the UK's first local lockdown after a surge in cases.
Schools in the city will close tomorrow, while non-essential shops shut yesterday.
Yesterday, PM Boris Johnson pressed on with efforts to move on from the coronavirus pandemic, outlining a £5bn investment programme with the slogan "build, build, build".
He insisted that now is the time for the country to be ambitious as it starts its recovery.
However, Professor Neil Ferguson, a former scientific adviser to the government who was sacked after breaching lockdown rules, warned that he is also "concerned" about the situation in Doncaster and Bradford, as focus shifts to where may follow Leicester into a local lockdown.
And, in Leicester, the city's Walkers Crisps factory reported an outbreak among workers has led to 28 being infected.
Earlier the UK's hospital death toll from coronavirus rose by 57.
In England 50 more people died in hospitals from Covid-19, in Scotland one more patient died, and six more patients also died in Wales. No new deaths were reported in Northern Ireland.
It represents the lowest rise on a Wednesday in hospitals since the lockdown began - although it seems fatalities in settings elsewhere are still being recorded in bigger numbers.
On recent Wednesdays, the hospital death toll increased by 64 on June 24, 97 on June 17, 109 on June 10, 215 on June 3, 209 on May 27 and 235 on May 20.
