The number of daily coronavirus infections continue to soar, as the UK's daily cases rise to 1,940 and a new city is plunged onto the official 'watchlist'.
The figures were last that high at the end of May, when much stricter lockdown restrictions were still in place.
Covid-19 cases had topped 1,700 yesterday for the first time since June.
A total of ten more people tragically died with Covid-19 in the last 24 hours across all settings including hospitals, care homes, and the wider community. Nine lost their lives in England, and one in Northern Ireland.
And the West Yorkshire city of Leeds has today been officially added to a Public Health England watchlist following a surge in the virus' spread.
While case numbers appear to be trending upwards, the number of deaths remain comparatively low to the last time the UK saw such high daily numbers of infections.
The government has also increased testing significantly since the earlier months of the pandemic after repeatedly failing to meet its own targets.
The last time daily case numbers were higher than 1,940 was on Friday, May 29, when there were 1,992 new infections.
On that date, 324 people around the UK lost their lives to the virus.
At that stage, the UK was still under strict lockdown rules with non-essential shops and eateries still shut, schools closed and travel heavily restricted.
At that stage the government was still also facing a testing fiasco, and the UK had only weeks before achieved the grim milestone of having the highest death toll in Europe.
Today's surge in cases comes as the government's scientific advisors have revealed the UK's coronavirus reproduction rate could still be above 1, possibly due to rises in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Scotland's leader had earlier this week raised concerns about a rising transmission rate following a spike that has prompted fresh restrictions in three areas.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said Scotland's 'R' number is now above 1 again.
She said it is believed the reproduction rate of the virus, which calculates how many people go on to be infected by each positive case, could be as high as 1.4 now after months at a lower level.
Scientists believe that an R rate of 1 is the threshold where the virus begins to spread more rapidly in the community.
