The England and Wales death toll for coronavirus in hospital has increased by 301 - with 114 dying on Christmas Day in England alone.
Overall in England there was 231 deaths but there are expected to be significant reporting delays due to the festive period.
In Wales there were 4,142 new infections and 70 suspected Covid deaths - however these figures cover 48 hours from between 9am on December 24 to 9am yesterday, instead of the usual 24 hours.
In Scotland there was 740 new cases - with a positive test rate of 12.3% across 6,793 tests.
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They have not released their hospital deaths figures, nor have Northern Ireland who are not updating their coronavirus dashboard between December 24 and tomorrow.
There have been a total of 70,349 deaths in the UK with Covid-19 on the certificate since the pandemic began - that figure, which includes deaths in the community, will be updated at 4pm.
The number of infections continues to soar and there are now more patients in hospital with Covid in England than there was in the spring during the first wave.
There is increasing speculation schools will not reopen in January.
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson reportedly told allies he's facing a "enormous battle".
Scientists are calling for a full lockdown (unlike November this would include schools) - with a crunch meeting between officials from Downing Street and the Department for Education being held next week.
Experts have warned that closing schools may be the only way to keep the new mutant coronavirus strain under control.
The mutant strain is feared to be up to 70% more infectious than the original virus.
To try and bring it under control Tier 4 was introduced in England and implemented across swathes of the country, including the capital London.
Before Christmas the government threatened to take local authorities to court if they allowed schools to close early.
Dr Zubaida Haque, who sits on Independent Sage, has questioned why the government haven’t placed the whole country in the harshest tier of restrictions to save lives.
The Sage scientist tweeted: “Given that we surpassed 70,000 #COVID19 deaths in UK on Christmas Day, and there are now more patients with coronavirus in hospital than at any point in the pandemic, why hasn’t the government implemented #tier4 restrictions everywhere in the UK? @IndependentSage are very worried.
