Nearly 30,000 people have tested positive for Covid in 24 hours, the Department of Health confirmed, with cases up 6.5 per cent in a week.
Today 29,612 infections were reported, bringing the number in the past week to 196,347..
This afternoon the Department of Health announced that a further 104 people had died after contracting the virus, meaning 607 lives have been lost to the coronavirus in the last week.
The UK's overall death toll since the start of the pandemic now stands at 130,607.
Infection rates have surprised experts, with the number of people testing positive having been expected to surge after restrictions were lifted last month.
Last Wednesday the Department of Health confirmed 28,936 cases, while a month ago, on July 11, that figure was 31,352.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid predicted at the start of July that the UK would likely see 100,000 new cases a day.
But today warnings were sounded over a "bumpy" autumn and winter to come, amid confusion over the country's vaccine booster programme.
Latest figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that the weekly number of coronavirus deaths in England and Wales has climbed to its highest level since the end of March.
Earlier today The Mirror reported that scientists are still deciding if all Brits will need the extra protection.
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JVCI) is carefully examining blood test samples and hospital admissions data before approving the programme.
Adam Finn, professor of paediatrics at the University of Bristol and sits on the JVCI board, told the BBC that a "broader booster programme is still uncertain".
"We clearly don't want to be giving vaccines to people that don't need them", he added.
England's Deputy Chief Medical Officer Professor Jonathan Van-Tam warned the pandemic is far from over and we may have one or two "bumpy periods in the autumn and winter".
The experts want to understand if people who had their vaccines early on in the rollout of the programme have experienced a decline in protection against Covid.
Sign up for our daily newsletter to keep up to date with all the essential information at www.mirror.co.uk/email
Leading diseases expert, however, have warned that another lockdown could be an option in the future.
Professor of infectious disease epidemiology Mark Woolhouse urged the government to keep the possibility of future restrictions on the table.
In an interview with Times Radio, the University of Edinburgh scientist said: "For people like myself, trying to advise the government on how to proceed and how fast to unlock, this determination to never go backwards is actually quite unhelpful.
"It inevitably makes the advice more cautious. Because if we can't go backwards we're very, very cautious about unlocking.
"What I think we need, because we're dealing with a novel virus with still uncertain potential, and we don't know how much this thing will evolve in the future, is to leave the door open to responding in whatever way is necessary in the future.
"I very, very much hope we won't have to go backwards, at least not too far, but I think we have to have that possibility, and keep it open just in case there is a public health emergency that none of us have foreseen at this stage."
Meanwhile, separate reports have revealed that the government had made "contingency plans" for further lockdowns if the NHS was to become overrun.
