Coronavirus: UK cases up 4,422 over last day

Fatalities related to the virus increase by 27, government figures say

A further 4,422 cases of the coronavirus have been recorded in the UK, according to the the Department for Health’s latest daily update.

The increase in infections brings the total national tally to 390,358.

Government figures said that 27 additional people died as of Saturday, bringing the nation’s total number of virus related fatalities to 41,759. 

Separate figures published by the UK's statistics agencies show there have now been 57,500 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.

It comes as the government is urged to act “sooner rather than later” to prevent a surge in new deaths accompanying rising case numbers.

Professor Neil Ferguson - who said in June that an early lockdown might have halved the nation’s death toll - said the UK is facing a "perfect storm" of conditions.

Ministers are thought to be looking at new temporary measures including pub curfews and a ban on inter-household socialising to see off the impact of rising cases.

"Right now we are at about the levels of infection we were seeing in this country in late February," Professor Ferguson told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

"If we leave it another two to four weeks we will be back at levels we were seeing more like mid-March. That's clearly going to cause deaths because people will be hospitalised.

"I think some additional measures are likely to be needed sooner rather than later.

"We have in some sense a perfect storm right now of people, as they have been told to, getting back to normal, schools reopening, a surge in cases, so therefore the testing system is under strain.

"So unfortunately we do have to roll the relaxation of measures back a little bit and get contacts down in the population."

Additional reporting by agencies