Covid cases in record rise for second consecutive day as deaths up by 744
UK sees worst daily death toll since April
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Your support makes all the difference.Britain has recorded the highest daily rise in Covid cases since the start of the pandemic for the second consecutive day.
Another 744 people have died and there are 39,237 new cases. It is the highest daily death figure since April 29 when 769 fatalities were recorded.
The total number of cases in the UK is now at 2,149,551 and the total number of deaths is 69,051.
The new figures came just minutes after Health Secretary Matt Hancock plunged new parts of the country into tier 4 from Boxing Day after concerns about the spread of the new variant of Covid-19.
Mr Hancock told a Downing Street press conference: "Just as we had got a tiered system in place that was able to control this virus we have discovered a new, more contagious virus - a variant that is spreading at a dangerous rate."
The changes mean an additional six million people will be in a Tier 4 lockdown from Boxing Day.
This means a total of 24 million people will now be in Tier 4, or 43% of the population of England.
Areas moving to the toughest Tier 4 - where there is a stay at home order - from Boxing Day are: Sussex, Oxfordshire, Suffolk, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire, those parts of Essex not yet in Tier 4, Waverley in Surrey and Hampshire - including Portsmouth and Southampton but with the exception of the New Forest.
Bristol, Gloucestershire, Somerset including the North Somerset council area, Swindon, the Isle of Wight, the New Forest and Northamptonshire as well as Cheshire and Warrington will all be escalated to Tier 3.
Cornwall and Herefordshire move from Tier 1 to Tier 2.
Mr Hancock also said a new “highly concerning” variant of the virus had been detected from South Africa.
He announced a range of new measures intended to reduce the strain spreading further, including placing the two people known to be infected with the South African strain into quarantine.
Mr Hancock said: "Anyone in the UK who has been in South Africa in the past fortnight and anyone who is a close contact of someone who has been in South Africa in the last fortnight, must quarantine immediately. They must restrict all contact with any other person whatsoever."
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