UK coronavirus daily cases have soared by 14 per cent in a week, with 37,314 new infections announced today.
It is up on the 32,700 cases recorded last Friday, with deaths also shooting up from 100 to 114.
It comes after the Office for National Statistics estimated one in 80 people in England had tested positive for Covid, in the week up to August 14.
England’s chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty has urged youngsters to get the jab as he said there are some “very sick” young adults in hospital with the virus.
He tweeted: “The great majority of adults have been vaccinated.
"Four weeks working on a Covid ward makes stark the reality that the majority of our hospitalised Covid patients are unvaccinated and regret delaying.
"Some are very sick including young adults. Please don’t delay your vaccine.”
It comes a week after ONS stats showed levels of Covid-19 across much of the UK remained high.
For two weeks in a row, around one in 75 people in England are estimated to have had covid-19 last week.
In Northern Ireland, positive cases were the highest last week with one in 55 people estimating to have had Covid-19.
Test and Trace figures released yesterday showed Covid cases rose by 6% in England last week.
Official data suggests the fall in cases around the start of the school holidays has now gone into reverse, with 190,508 people testing positive between August 5-11.
This latest rise is from the period just before isolation rules were axed. From August 16, children and double-jabbed adults in England have no longer had to isolate in most cases if a close contact tests positive.
Meanwhile an alternative to Covid vaccines for people with weakened immune systems could soon be available.
AstraZeneca said today its antibody therapy has met the main goal of preventing the virus in a late-stage study, putting the drug-maker on track to potentially make it available.
The company said the cocktail of two types of antibodies, initially discovered by Vanderbilt University Medical Center, reduced the risk of developing symptomatic Covid-19 by 77 percent.
More than 75 percent of the participants had chronic conditions, including some linked to a diminished immune response to vaccination, it said.
The results mark a change of fortune for AstraZeneca.
It reported in June that a smaller late-stage trial failed to provide evidence that the antibody cocktail, known for now as AZD7442, protected people who had contact with an infected person from the disease.
The Anglo-Swedish drug-maker, which has faced challenges with the rollout of its Covid-19 vaccine, is also working on repurposing existing drugs to fight the virus.
It comes weeks after an initial late-stage trial failed to provide evidence that the antibody therapy could provide protection.
