UK Covid deaths jump to 981 in highest toll since April with 50,023 new infections as millions plunged into Tier 4

ALMOST 1,000 more Brits have lost their lives to coronavirus in the highest toll since April as the entire country prepares to head into Tier 3 and 4 measures tonight.

A further 981 have died and 50,023 more have been diagnosed with coronavirus overnight – the second highest increase ever – amid rocketing infection rates.

Read our coronavirus live blog for the latest news & updates

PA:Press Association

Coronavirus cases are surging in the UK – but there’s hope for the future as regulators approve the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine [/caption]

PA:Press Association

It comes as more people are admitted to hospital with Covid than at the peak of the first wave, causing long delays for ambulances in London [/caption]

The death toll is likely to swell in the coming days after a reporting lag over Christmas. Scotland and Northern Ireland didn’t record deaths over the festive period.

Millions more are heading into Tier 4 measures tomorrow – as three-quarters of the country face the harshest restrictions from midnight.

Yesterday, a record 53,135 cases were recorded as hospital admissions go well past the April peak.

Now a slew of new areas are heading into the strictest measures as officials try to stop the spread of a mutant strain of the virus.

Three-quarters of Brits will be in Tier 4 from midnight.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock made the announcement after warning we “have to take further action”.

Today, he told MPs the weekly case rate in England rose to 402.6 per 100,000 people between December 18 and 24 – a 32 per cent increase on the previous week.

And 18 per cent more people are battling the illness in hospital week-on-week, with 14,915 patients on wards across the country.

It comes as:

• An online calculator reveals when Brits can expect to get the vaccine
• Officials say more regions will go into Tier 4 in a bid to escape a ‘Tier 5’ lockdown
• Brits are banned from starting 2021 with a kiss to stop the spread of coronavirus
• Mums are told they can get new vaccines – after earlier being told to give birth before getting the jab
• Covid cops crack down on Londoners fleeing the capital to beauty spots around the UK

In hospitals in England, another 494 people have died with the virus.

Patients were aged between 30 and 100. All except 20, aged between 36 and 92, had known underlying health conditions.

The highest number of fatalities – 109 – were recorded in the north-west.

In London, 83 people lost their lives, while 94 died in the Midlands, 71 in the north-east and Yorkshire and 65 in the south-east.

A further 40 died in the east of England and 32 in the south-west.

In Wales, there have been another 2,281 cases recorded, as well as 13 deaths.

Yesterday, half of the 485 tests administered in Bridgend, west of Cardiff, returned a positive result.

Meanwhile, in Scotland, 2,045 more positive tests were confirmed and another 43 deaths were reported.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said today that the between December 17 and 23, 800,900 people in England – 1.47 per cent of the population, or one in 70 – had Covid.

The percentage of people testing positive has continued to increase sharply in London, the east, and the south-east, while rates in the north-west, West Midlands and south-west are on the up.

Infections are no longer decreasing in Yorkshire and The Humber, the north-east and the East Midlands.

Essex is now the worst-hit place in England.

Brentwood has the highest rates in the country, with 1,258.1 cases per 100,000 people.

Nearby Epping Forest and Thurrock are in second and third place on the grim hitlist, with 1,256 and 1,181.6 cases respectively.

A ‘major incident’ has been declared at hospitals in the county as patients are treated in the back of ambulances and medics prepare to work in tents usually reserved for terror attacks.

Meanwhile, Covid-hit London hospitals could sent patients to Yorkshire as intensive care units reach breaking point at 114 per cent capacity.

War-style triage tents could also be set up in car parks to treat those suffering the new variant of the bug.

But although London and the south-east are currently worst-affected by the strain, cases are rising across many areas of the country.

Regions with the highest rates currently outside of Tier 4 include Burnley, with 465.6 cases per 100,000 people, up from 446.5 the previous week.

Tier 2 Eden in Cumbria, which has a rate of 485.2, and Pendle in Lancashire, with a rate of 390.8, are in second and third place.

This evening, Boris Johnson will address the nation about the crisis from Downing Street.

It’s expected that Brits will be told secondary school re-opening will be delayed as the variant spreads through the UK.

After crunch meetings, the PM is set to sign off a plan to keep older students out of classrooms until January 18 – despite plans to get the Army to test thousands of kids.

Students studying their GCSEs and A-levels will not be allowed to return to school on January 4, according to the TES. 

The earliest they will be able to return is January 11, if they have had a negative Covid test.

Primary school students, vulnerable children and kids of key workers will be able to return on January 4.

However, other secondary school pupils are expected to only go back to class on January 18 – at the earliest.

But there is today fresh hope that life could soon return to normal.

Regulators have approved the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, and some 100 million doses will begin to be rolled out from January 4.

The UK has enough doses to immunise the entire population and officials believe 24 million people could get the jab before Easter.

Mr Hancock hailed the vaccine as a “great British success story” which will help the country out of the pandemic “by spring”.

The jab, from Oxford and AstraZeneca, could give up to 70 per cent protection 22 days after the first dose, experts today revealed.

People won’t need their second dose for another three months – allowing medics to roll the first jabs out to as many people as possible.