More than 7,000 new coronavirus cases have been recorded in the UK in the last 24 hours.
This is only slightly less than yesterday's figures which were the highest ever amount recorded since the pandemic began.
The number of deaths has also increased by 71 - the same as Tuesday's figure which was the highest daily total of deaths since July 1.
The government said that, as of 9am on Tuesday, there had been a further 7,108 lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK, taking the overall number of cases confirmed to 453,264.
The figures showed further 71 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Wednesday.
This brings the UK total to 42,143.
Separate figures published by the UK’s statistics agencies show there have now been 57,600 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.
Figures also reveal that there are now 312 patients on ventilation - up from 297 yesterday - with a total of 2,252 in hospital - an increase of three.
All figures are based on Public Health England data published on Wednesday.
