Coronavirus infections have rocketed to 42,076 on Friday.
There were 121 deaths related to Covid recorded in 24 hours in the latest figures released by the government.
Vaccinations continue to be a huge success as 91,314,745 Covid jabs have been rolled out in total across the UK.
Of the vaccinations, 48,171,998 have been the first doses given to the population and 43,142,747 have been second doses.
It comes as the virus strain Mu landed in the UK and has been designated a variant of interest by WHO.
The Mu variant “has a constellation of mutations that indicate potential properties of immune escape”, according to the WHO.
More investigations need to be done into the virus strain, the WHO said.
Latest Covid figures have been revealed as it was announced Covid jabs will not be recommended to healthy children aged 12 to 15.
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has announced that it is widening the so-far limited rollout to more children in this age bracket who have underlying health conditions.
But it is not recommending mass vaccination of children aged between 12 and 15.
The programme is being extended from what had been considered the most at-risk children, to include children with chronic major heart, lung, kidney, liver and neurological conditions.
It means about 200,000 more children will be invited for vaccines.
