The UK's coronavirus death toll has risen by 488 in the biggest Tuesday increase in eight months.
The last time the hospital toll was that high on a Tuesday was April 28.
The figure is more than double yesterday's rise, although there has typically been a deaths reporting lag following weekends throughout the pandemic.
The toll included 405 who died in England, 43 in Scotland, 24 in Wales, and 16 in Northern Ireland in the 24 hours to Tuesday.
The confirmed UK death toll from the pandemic is currently 33,364 but the real figure is thought to be much higher with many deaths in spring not counted due to a lack of testing capacity.
The latest figures come as the government grapples with a crisis over the Dover to Calais crossing, two nights after France shut down the border to manned transport.
Hundreds of lorries are either queuing on the motorway or parked up at a nearby airport as officials work desperately with their French counterparts to get freight moving again.
And the Government's chief scientific adviser warned that tougher restrictions will be needed across the country with cases of the mutant strain appearing "everywhere".
The Tier 4 lockdown was announced for London and parts of southern and eastern England at the weekend after existing Tier 3 measures proved unable to control the spread of the more infections variant.
Sir Patrick indicated a lockdown may be needed in wider areas of England, particularly as Christmas mixing may result in an increased spread of cases.
The Prime Minister refused to guarantee that schools in England will reopen after Christmas, saying "we want, if we possibly can, to get schools back in a staggered way at the beginning of January" but "the commonsensical thing to do is to follow the path of the epidemic".
Scotland has already announced a lockdown from Boxing Day while Wales' tough restrictions will only be eased for Christmas Day before being reimposed.
At a Downing Street news conference Sir Patrick said: "The evidence on this virus is that it spreads easily, it's more transmissible, we absolutely need to make sure we have the right level of restrictions in place.
"I think it is likely that this will grow in numbers of the variant across the country and I think it's likely, therefore, that measures will need to be increased in some places, in due course, not reduced."
The New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag) met again on Monday to consider the new variant and while it does not appear to alter the course of the disease it does spread more easily.
"That again reinforces the point that it's important to get ahead of this and to make sure that the tiering system is adequate to stop things going, and not to watch it and react in retrospect," Sir Patrick said.
Given the "inevitable mixing" over Christmas "I think there will be some increases in numbers over the next few weeks".
Regional public health directors in Manchester and the West Midlands urged anyone who travelled from a Tier 4 area or Wales to self isolate upon their arrival and "assume" they have the new Covid-19 variant.
But Professor Neil Ferguson, a member of Nervtag, said his best assessment is that the virus will decline over the next two weeks for both the variant and non-variant.
He explained: "Contact rates tend to be lower over Christmas with the tightening of Christmas measures and Tier 4 for in place in the highest areas."
