Nearly 400 Covid-related deaths have been recorded in the UK on Wednesday.
There were 398 deaths recorded within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test in the latest Government figures.
This is the highest number of daily deaths since February 24 last year when 442 fatalities were reported.
By comparison, the UK reported 379 Covid deaths on Tuesday this week as cases dropped to 120,821.
There were 129,587 positive infections recorded on Wednesday in the latest figures available.
A total of 52,011,835 first doses of Covid-19 vaccine had been delivered in the UK by January 11, Government figures show.
This is a rise of 19,276 on the previous day.
Some 47,774,248 second doses have been delivered, an increase of 28,790.
A combined total of 35,953,243 booster and third doses have been given, a day-on-day rise of 139,584.
It comes after an expert claimed the UK would be among the first countries to emerge from the pandemic.
Professor David Heymann, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), said the UK is starting to see signs of the disease becoming endemic.
Speaking at a Chatham House online briefing, he said the UK is likely one of the countries with the highest levels of population immunity.
Prof Heymann said the Covid pandemic would not be declared over across the globe “until all countries have completed what they need to do to make this virus more tame and to become endemic”.
