The UK recorded 35,707 new Covid cases and 29 deaths on Friday, according to official figures.
It is the highest number of infections since January 22 when 40,261 cases were recorded.
Deaths are down today compared to the 35 recorded yesterday and the 33 recorded on Wednesday.
A surge in cases in the UK has been sparked by the arrival of the highly infectious Delta variant.
Although infections are high, deaths have stayed relatively low compared to the last peak due to Britain’s successful vaccination rollout.
Around 65 per cent of adults are now fully vaccinated in the UK.
On Friday the coronavirus reproduction number, or R value, in England increased slightly to between 1.2 to 1.5.
Last week, it was between 1.1 and 1.3.
R represents the average number of people each Covid-19 positive person goes on to infect.
When the figure is above 1, an outbreak can grow exponentially but when it is below 1, it means the epidemic is shrinking.
An R number between 1.2 and 1.5 means that, on average, every 10 people infected will infect between 12 and 15 other people.
The growth rate is between 3% and 7%, which means the number of new infections is growing by between 3% and 7% every day.
