Coronavirus daily deaths are above 200 for the first time in nearly six months.
Virus cases in the UK have today risen by 35,693 with a further 207 deaths recorded in the last 24 hours.
It's the most fatalities since March 9 when there was 231.
Last Wednesday there were 35,847 more infections and 149 fatalities within 28 days of a positive test.
It's a slight drop in cases over the course of a week, but a surge in deaths by 39 percent.
The UK has seen at least 20,000 daily cases since the end of June.
And in that period, infections peaked at 54,674 on July 17 - two days before England lifted restrictions.
On Monday the number of daily Covid infections did, however, drop below 30,000 for the first time in nearly two weeks.
Yesterday saw 32,181 new cases recorded and 50 more deaths.
Throughout March, when the UK was in lockdown, cases rarely reached above 6,000 but daily death rates were similar to August despite last month often seeing around 35,000 new cases a day.
Nearly 7,000 people were being treated for the virus last week, the latest Department of Health data shows.
NHS trusts in Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester had England's highest numbers of coronavirus patients, while all of the country's 10 worst hit hospitals have seen a dramatic rise in cases since Freedom Day.
The vaccination programme, however, continues to rumble on.
The UK administered 19,643 first doses of the vaccination, and 66,648 second jabs, as of Monday (August 30).
The number of fully vaccinated Brits now sits at 42,790,585, as per the most up to date figures.
Although infections did not rise as expected when lockdown restrictions were lifted last month, scientists have continued to warn that the UK should brace for a difficult autumn.
Ministers intend to roll out a booster programme this month, officials said yesterday.
Experts from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) are preparing to make a final decision about the booster campaign, with the NHS in England poised to start the campaign from September 6.
It comes as a new Covid strain, which is already in the UK, has been designated a variant of interest by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Latest government figures show there have been at least 48 confirmed cases of the Mu, or B.1.621 variant, which was first identified in Colombia earlier this year.
The strain has been detected in 39 countries so far, the WHO said in its weekly bulletin.
Scientists said the variant has mutations, suggesting it could be more resistant to vaccines - as was the case with Beta.
But this is not conclusive, and researchers said more studies would be needed to examine this further.
The new variant was first identified at the start of the year, and a large number of cases have since been found in Colombia, where it now accounts for 39 per cent of Covid cases.
Near neighbour Equador has a 13 per cent prevalence, WHO said.
