Hospital admissions due to Covid have nearly doubled week-on-week in London, the latest figures show.
This is up 92 per cent week-on-week and the highest number for a single day since February 1, according to NHS England.
A total 386 Covid admissions were recorded by London hospitals in a single day on Wednesday which is in touching distance of the threshold of 400 for a lockdown.
Ministers are said to be keeping an eye on admission rates in the capital before introducing more national measures.
NHS chiefs have also raised concerns at the major increase in hospitalisations due to the virus after another record number of daily cases.
Across England, 1,246 admissions were recorded on December 22, up 55 per cent week-on-week and the highest number for a single day since February 16.
But this is still well below the second wave peak of 4,134 admissions reported on January 12.
The number of Covid admissions includes people admitted to hospital in the last 24 hours who were known to have the virus, plus any patients diagnosed in hospital in the previous 24 hours.
In London, the number of people in hospital with Covid has almost doubled in a week with 2,260 patients on Christmas Eve.
This is the highest number since February 25, but well below the second wave peak of 7,917 on January 18.
Across England, 7,366 patients were in hospital with Covid on December 24, the highest number since November 2 and up 17 per cent week-on-week.
The second-wave peak for England was 34,336 on January 18.
Separate Government figures show that across the UK there were 1,171 Covid hospital admissions on December 20, up 30 per cent week-on-week and the highest number since February 19.
Again, this is much lower than the peak during the second wave when UK admissions reached 4,583 on January 12.
A total of 8,240 people were in hospital in the UK with Covid as of December 22 - up 8 per cent week-on-week and the highest number since November 16.
The second-wave peak was 39,254 on January 18.
