The number of coronavirus deaths in the UK's hospitals has risen by 157 suggesting the rate of fatalities may be flattening.
The figure is usually lower on Sundays and Mondays because of weekend reporting lags.
But the grim number compares with 151 on November 8, and 167 on the Sunday before that suggesting growth is slowing.
NHS England said there were 132 fatalities in its hospitals while Wales recorded 16 new deaths.
Northern Ireland said nine people had died there and Scotland recorded no new deaths.
The Scottish government said the number of new cases today rose by 1,159 while Wales climbed by 1,333.
In northern Ireland, there were also another 472 confirmed cases of the virus recorded in the last 24-hour reporting period.
The number of new infections in England will be announced by health authorities later today.
Yesterday health bosses announced that 462 people had died in all settings, in addition to over 27,000 new cases.
Earlier today the boss of a drug company creating a highly-anticipated coronavirus vaccine said he expects the UK will return to "normal" by winter next year.
Ugur Sahin, chief executive of BioNTech, also explained how he was confident the new jab will work when it is rolled out in the coming weeks.
The drugmaker is creating a vaccine in conjunction with pharma giant Pfizer, which has already said is 90% effective in preventing Covid-19 in patients.
The UK has ordered 40 million doses of the jab and could get 10 million to distribute before the end of this year.
But he said it was "absolutely essential" to have a high vaccination rate before autumn next year.
"This winter will be hard. So we will not have a big impact on the infection numbers with our vaccine this winter," he told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show.
"If everything continues to go well, we will start to deliver the vaccine end of this year, beginning next year."
Mr Sahin said the goal was to deliver more than 300 million doses before April next year, which could "already start to make an impact", with a bigger impact expected during the summer.
He added: "What is absolutely essential is that we get a high vaccination rate before autumn/winter next year, so that means all the immunisation, vaccination approaches must be accomplished before next autumn.
"I'm confident that this will happen, because a number of vaccine companies have been asked to increase the supply, and so that we could have a normal winter next year."
