More than 1,300 coronavirus deaths have been confirmed as the UK recorded its highest daily death toll for the virus since the start of the pandemic.
The Government said a further 1,325 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Friday (January 8) – the highest number of UK deaths reported on a single day since the outbreak began.
It brings the UK total to 79,833.
The figures continue to be affected by a lag in the publication of recent data and will contain some deaths that took place over the Christmas and New Year period that have only just been reported.
Separate figures published by the UK’s statistics agencies for deaths where Covid-19 has been mentioned on the death certificate, together with additional data on deaths that have occurred in recent days, show there have now been 95,000 deaths involving Covid-19 in the UK.
The Government also said that, as of 9am on Friday, there had been a further 68,053 lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK.
It brings the total number of cases in the UK to 2,957,472.
A further 715 people who tested positive for coronavirus have died in hospital in England, bringing the total number of confirmed deaths reported in hospitals to 54,445, NHS England said on Friday.
The deaths were between December 15 and January 7.
There were 40 other deaths reported with no positive Covid-19 test result.
There have been a further 2,487 cases of coronavirus in Wales, taking the total number of confirmed cases to 165,721.
Public Health Wales reported another 56 deaths, taking the total in Wales since the start of the pandemic to 3,857.
