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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
National
Alice Peacock

UK Covid deaths increase by 12.6% in a week as more than 43,000 cases recorded

A further 43,467 Covid cases and 186 deaths have been recorded in the UK just days after the nation's death toll hit 140,000.

The figure is a 12.7 percent drop in infections compared to seven days ago, but fatalities have increased by 12.6 percent.

The latest Covid figures, released this afternoon by the Department of Health, come as Britain's death toll for the whole pandemic sits at 140,392.

Last Friday’s stats showed 49,298 new cases and 180 deaths.

While a month ago, the UK recorded 167 deaths and 43,467 cases.

Though case rises have slowed this week and are substantially down on the week before, the number of deaths is rising.

It comes after England’s Covid R rate has risen yet again to an estimated 1.1 to 1.3, the UK Health Security Agency has said today.

An R number between 1.1 and 1.3 means that for every 10 people infected, they will on average infect between 11 and 13 other people (Mark Thomas/REX/Shutterstock)

An R number between 1.1 and 1.3 means that for every 10 people infected, they will on average infect between 11 and 13 other people.

The R number in England was estimated to have risen to between 1.0 and 1.2 last Friday - showing coronavirus cases in the country were growing at their fastest rate in months.

The previous week's R rate was estimated between 0.9 and 1.1.

The figures come as one in 50 people in private households in England tested positive for coronavirus last week.

Scenes inside the Intensive Care Unit at the University Hospital Southampton (Adam Gerrard / Sunday Mirror)

Weekly data from the Office for National Statistics found more than 1.1 million people had Covid-19 in the week leading up to October 22.

The latest figures show a rise from the previous week, when 977,900 people were infected by the virus - or one in 55.

At the peak of the second wave in early January, around one in 50 were estimated to have Covid.

Coronavirus rates have risen across all age groups except for those from school year 12 to age 24 and for those aged 25 to 34, where the trend was uncertain, the ONS said.

Coronavirus infection levels have risen dramatically across the UK in recent weeks (Adam Gerrard / Sunday Mirror)

Nearly one in 10 (9.1%) of school pupils in years 7 to 11 tested positive for Covid-19.

Coronavirus infection levels have risen across the UK as new estimates show the same proportion of people in England have Covid-19 as at the peak of the second wave.

In Wales, the level is at its highest since estimates began in summer last year.

Despite the prevalence of Covid-19 across the four nations, hospital admissions and deaths remain well below levels seen during the second wave in January.

The vaccine rollout is largely credited as the reason for the lower figures.

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