The UK has reported 35,707 new cases of coronavirus and a further 29 deaths in the latest 24-hour period.
This is now the highest number of cases recorded in the third wave and since January 23 when there were 33,431 new infections.
The number of new infections have jumped almost 9,000 from last Friday when there were 26,758 new cases - and 27 deaths.
The news comes as the coronavirus reproduction (R) number in England has increased slightly and is now between 1.2 and 1.5, according to the latest Government figures.
Last week, it was between 1.1 and 1.3.
Regionally, the R number is as high as 1.6 in North East and Yorkshire, the South East and the South West.
R represents the average number of people each Covid-19 positive person goes on to infect.
An R value between 1.2 and 1.5 means that, on average, every 10 people infected will infect between 12 and 15 other people.
When the figure is above 1, an outbreak can grow exponentially but when it is below 1, it means the epidemic is shrinking.
The growth rate is between 3% and 7%, which means the number of new infections is growing by between 3% and 7% every day.
Last week, the growth rate was +2% to +5%.
The estimates represent the transmission of coronavirus two to three weeks ago due to the time delay between someone being infected, developing symptoms, and needing healthcare.
Data from the Office of National Statistics' (ONS) Infection Survey show around 1 in 160 people are testing positive with Covid-19.
And the delta variant in the UK is also still on the rise.
The data comes from the ONS's Infection Survey, which measures how coronavirus is spreading in the community.
Unlike most testing figures, it uses a formula to estimate total cases of coronavirus - regardless of whether people have tested positive or not. That means it is much higher than other estimates of the virus.
However, it only looks at the community, so excludes places like hospitals, care homes and other "institutional" settings like prisons.
