The UK's coronavirus hospital death toll has increased by 346 to 51,535 in another sign that the peak of the second wave could be levelling off.
England reported 275 fatalities, Scotland had 30, Wales recorded 29 and Northern Ireland had 12 .
By comparison, the number of deaths announced on recent Fridays was 354 on December 4, 408 on November 27, 401 on November 20, 342 on November 13 and 270 on November 6.
The lowest toll announced on a Friday was five on August 21, while the highest was 953 on April 10, when the UK was going through the initial peak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
It comes as Sage says the number of new infections across the UK is shrinking by between zero and 2% every day, but it is not confident that R is below 1 in all English regions, particularly in London and parts of the South East.
Have you been affected by coronavirus? Email your story to webnews@mirror.co.uk.
NHS England announced a further 275 deaths, bringing the total number of fatalities in hospitals in England to 43,812. All but 15 of the latest victims were aged 60 and over.
Scotland has recorded 30 new deaths from coronavirus in the past 24 hours.
It brings the death toll under this measure - of people who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days - to 4,069.
Wales' death toll increased by 29 to 2,818.
Northern Ireland reported a further 12 deaths to take its total to 1,111.
Meanwhile, the reproduction number, or R value, of coronavirus transmission across the UK is now between 0.9 and 1, the Government Office for Science and the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) said.
Last week, the R number was between 0.8 and 1.
R represents the average number of people each Covid-19 positive person goes on to infect.
When the figure is above 1, an outbreak can grow exponentially.
An R number between 0.9 and 1 means that on average every 10 people infected will infect between 9 and 10 other people.
Meanwhile, the R value in England is between 0.8 and 1, but Sage said it is not confident that R is below 1 in all English regions, particularly in London and parts of the South East.
The crucial number could be as high as 1.1 in London, the South East and the East, with new infections rising by as much as 1-2% each day in those regions.
It comes just days before the Government decides whether to move cities and towns out of their current tiers.
The estimates for R and the growth rate are provided by the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (SPI-M), a sub-group of Sage.
The growth rate, which estimates how quickly the number of infections is changing day by day, is between minus 2% and zero for the UK as a whole.
It means the number of new infections is shrinking by between zero and 2% every day.
Estimates for R and growth rates are shown as a range and the true values are likely to lie within this range, according to the experts.
Sage also said the figures published on Friday more accurately represent the average situation over the past few weeks rather than the present situation.
