The number of Covid-19 patients to die in UK hospitals has risen by 52.
Of these, 43 fatalities were reported in England, while there were seven coronavirus-linked deaths in Scotland, one in Wales and one in Northern Ireland.
Scotland recorded its deadliest day in three months.
The figure is almost double the 27 recorded in hospitals last Wednesday, showing the slow rise in fatalities experts had warned about is starting.
Patients who died in England were aged between 43 and 98, and all but one, aged 72, had known underlying health conditions.
The heartbreaking figure was released the day after the UK recorded its highest daily rise in new infections since the start of the pandemic.
The Department of Health confirmed 7,143 new cases and 71 deaths in its daily update yesterday.
Boris Johnson was this morning forced to defend his confusion over his own lockdown rules at Prime Minister's Questions as Keir Starmer said he was "not surprised" by the gaffe.
The PM yesterday appeared to get the facts of his own local lockdown rules wrong before being forced into an embarrassing apology.
Later, Mr Johnson will hold a rare news conference to provide an update on the UK's response to the second wave of the crisis, alongside Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty and Chief Scientific Advisor Sir Patrick Vallance.
Meanwhile, spiralling coronavirus rates in the north of England have left Liverpool fearing the first "circuit break" lockdown in the UK could be imposed in days.
Yesterday 47 Covid-19 deaths were reported in UK hospitals in the highest daily rise since early July. 44 new deaths were recorded in England, three in Wales, and no new deaths in Scotland or Northern Ireland.
Alarming new data shows the speed at which coronavirus is ripping through communities in England.
Since July, analysis by Mirror Online reveals that some hotspots have seen the number of cases multiply by 100 in just a month as authorities battle against a second wave.
This equates to a 10,000% surge in infections.
Of 315 local authority areas in the country, just nine have seen a fall in the infection rate since the end of last month.
Burnley, which now is the worst-affected area in England, has seen its weekly infection rate skyrocket from 19.2 cases per 100,000 in July to 313.8 in latest Public Health England figures.
In July Sunderland had just 1.1 cases per 100,000 people - compared to its current rate of 186.5.
