Covid cases in Britain have surged by 51,870 - a rise of 45 per cent from a week ago.
Official data shows that 49 deaths were also recorded in the last 24 hours.
The figures come just days before England unlocks its society, with the majority of legal limits on distancing removed.
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are following different timetables.
A total of 48,553 infections were recorded on Thursday, across all the nations - the highest rise in six months.
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England's decision to end lockdown on July 19 - dubbed 'Freedom Day' - has been debated hotly by experts.
But, announcing the move to the House of Commons, health secretary Sajid Javid said: "If not now, when?"
Chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty has struck a more cautious tone in contrast - and warned another lockdown could happen.
Speaking at a British Science Museum event, Professor Whitty underlined that epidemics are "either doubling or they're halving", adding: "And currently this epidemic is doubling. It's doubling in cases.
"It is also doubling in people going to hospital, and it's doubling in deaths."
He said that the doubling time for hospital cases was "around three weeks" and while the number of hospitalisations was "mercifully much lower", it was "not trivial".
He said: "We've still got over 2000 people in hospital, and that number is increasing.
"If we double from 2000 to 4000, from 4000 to 8000, to 8000 and so on, it doesn't take many doubling times till you're into very very large numbers indeed."
Professor Whitty added that medics could soon be faced with "scary numbers again", adding: "I don't think we should underestimate the fact that we could get into trouble again, surprisingly fast."
He added that more people could be fighting the disease in hospital "in five, six, seven, eight weeks' time", and went on: "They could actually be really quite serious... at that point if it looks as if things are not topping out, we do have to look again and see where we think things are going."
And Dame Sarah Gilbert, one of the scientists behind the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab, has warned life will not be able to return to normal until the world is vaccinated against Covid-19.
The professor of vaccinology at the University of Oxford's Jenner Institute, said that variants of the virus will continue to be a threat until more jabs are made and distributed to populations around the globe.
She said that although the vaccines available are effective against variants which are in circulation currently, there could be a "much worse situation" if rates of Covid-19 remain high in parts of the world.
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She told the Full Disclosure podcast with LBC's James O'Brien: "I hope that we are now going to reach the position where it is recognised that vaccines are needed for everybody.
"They are needed in this country and they are needed for the whole world as well, and actually vaccinating the whole world is the best way to protect us.
"Because if we don't, then there will be new variants arising, and we will never get back to normality if we can't get everybody vaccinated."
Dame Sarah, who co-created the jab which has gone into the arms of tens of millions of people, stressed the importance of more vaccines being produced and distributed around the globe.
She added: "Because if we don't, the virus is going to continue to circulate and to mutate, and we won't be able to travel, and we may reach a point where the vaccines that are in use now are much less effective."
