Coronavirus cases rise by nearly 3,000 again as 14 more people die

A further 14 people have died with coronavirus, bringing the UK’s death toll to 41,608.

There were 2,919 new cases of the virus recorded in the 24 hours previous, meaning there have now been 358,138 infections across the UK since the pandemic began. It marks the fifth day in a row that more than 2,400 new infections have been reported.

A further 141 people were admitted to hospital, bringing the total number of patients receiving treatment to 837, 80 of whom need a ventilator. There were 175,687 tests processed on Wednesday, with a capacity of 369,937 across all pillars.

NHS England recorded a further eight coronavirus deaths across hospital settings today, all of which happened in the 10 days previous. Wales and Scotland recorded no further deaths, while Northern Ireland is yet to release their figures.

The UK is currently facing the threat of restrictions remaining in place throughout winter after Boris Johnson announced that gatherings of more than six people would become illegal from Monday.

Speaking at a coronavirus news conference, the Prime Minister stated that the new rules would be enforced by police officers and new ‘covid-secure marshals’. Anyone caught breaking the restrictions could be arrested or fined £100, which will then double on each further repeat offence up to £3,200.

Households and support bubbles of more than six people will be exempt from the restrictions, while weddings and funerals will be allowed to go ahead with no more than 30 people in attendance, he added.

Johnson also announced new efforts to ramp up testing with a target of 500,000 carried out a day by October. He said the purpose would no longer be finding cases of coronavirus, but allowing people without infection to continue normal life.

However, leaked documents have revealed the government’s plans, named Operation Moonshot project, could cost more than £100,000,000.000, which is almost as much as NHS England’s annual budget.

According to papers seen by the The British Medical Journal (BMJ), the plan will be to carry out as many as 10,000,000 tests daily by early 2021. But critics fear that mass testing could actually lead to an increase in false negative results.

Some have also pointed out that the plan is ‘fundamentally flawed’ as the technology to achieve mass testing does not yet exist – something ministers have also admitted.

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