Another 175 people die with Covid as UK records 6,609 new cases

A further 6,609 people have tested positive for coronavirus in the past 24 hours, the Department of Health have confirmed.

Today’s figures show another 175 people have died within 28 days of being diagnosed with Covid-19, compared to 236 this time last week. This puts the official death toll at 125,343.

However separate data from the UK’s statistics agencies on cases where the virus has been mentioned on the death certificate, as well as fatalities in recent days put the figure at around 147,000.

Government data up to March 11 shows that of the 24,759,603 jabs given in the UK so far, 23,314,525 were first doses – a rise of 260,809 on the previous day.

Some 1,445,078 were second doses, an increase of 93,563.

Earlier it was confirmed that the R number – measuring the speed at which Covid-19 reproduces – had dropped to between 0.6 and 0.8, with number of new infections shrinking by between 4% and 7% every day.

This means that every 10 people infected with the virus will, on average, pass it on to between six and eight others. An R rate below 1 means that the spread of the bug is in decline.

More to follow.