Covid: UK reports a record 122,186 daily cases on Christmas Eve
Number of people taken to hospital rises 55 per cent in a week, nearly doubling in London
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Your support makes all the difference.Another 122,186 new cases of Covid-19 have been announced – the third day in a row that the UK has hit a new record for daily infections.
The 24-hour figure, which is up from 119,789 the day before, comes after a record total of people tested positive for Covid in the UK last week. There were also 137 deaths in the past 24 hours, figures show, down from 147 on Thursday.
But new figures also show hospital admissions are still rising sharply, nearly doubling in London from last week – even though people are less likely to need hospital care with the Omicron variant.
A total of 386 Covid-19 patients were admitted by hospitals in the capital on Wednesday, according to data.
There were 2,260 people in hospital in London with Covid-19 as of 8am on that day, NHS England said – the highest number since 25 February.
Across England, 1,246 admissions were recorded on Wednesday, up 55 per cent week on week and the highest number for a single day since 16 February.
The government is planning to send out text messages urging the public to get a Covid booster jab over the festive period, it has been reported.
The UK’s biggest mobile operators – EE, O2, Vodafone and Three UK – have been asked to send a reminder message on Boxing Day.
The campaign, which would mean messages being sent to tens of millions of customers, is understood not to have been given final sign-off yet.
Around 1.7 million people in the UK were thought to have been infected with coronavirus last week, with Omicron responsible for the exceptionally rapid spread.
England had the highest proportion of cases, with one in 35 people recording a positive test result, rising to one in 20 in London.
Separate figures published by the Office for National Statistics show there have now been 173,000 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.
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