Coronavirus UK: Highest ever daily case total for second day running as 6,874 new infections recorded

34 deaths confirmed over period as increase in testing throws up record case figures

The UK has reported a record number of new cases for the second day running - with 6,874 lab-confirmed instances of the coronavirus seen in a 24 hour period.

The figure is the highest to be reported yet by the department for health and social care, beating the previous day’s record of 6,634 and bringing the total since the outbreak began to 423,236.

Experts have previously suggested that despite numbers reaching higher than confirmed figures from March, the lack of community testing available at that time could make direct comparisons between the first and second coronavirus spike in the UK “misleading”.

The government also said a further 34 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Friday, bringing the UK total to 41,936.

But the daily figure did not include deaths in Scotland, with a message on the dashboard reading: “Due to a power outage at National Records of Scotland we have not been able to update the deaths figures for Scotland.”

Separate figures published by the UK’s statistics agencies show there have been 57,600 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.

Government figures broken down by local authority put Bolton as the most severely afflicted region in England, with 696 new cases recorded in the seven days to September 22 - the equivalent of 242.0 infections per 100,000 people.

Burnley recorded the second highest rate - up from 113.6 to 233.9 with 208 new cases. The town was followed by Knowsley, where the rate has risen from 125.3 to 230.7, with 348 new cases.

It comes as lockdown measures are extended across parts of the UK to mitigate the rising case figures.

More than 17.5 million people will be living under restrictions by the end of the weekend when Leeds, parts of Wales and towns in the north west are told to go into local lockdown.

The latest seven-day Covid-19 rate in Leeds was found to be 98.5 per 100,000 people, with an 8.4 per cent positive test rate.

Meanwhile  London is being made an "area of concern", according to London Councils, a cross-party organisation which represents all 32 boroughs and the City of London. No additional measures will be taken in the city, but testing capacity will be boosted to closely monitor the growth of the virus.

Additional reporting by agency