Coronavirus cases in the UK rise by 20,890 as deaths see the biggest rise on Monday since May

The UK has recorded nearly 21,000 new coronavirus cases overnight, as deaths increased by more than 100.

Another 102 deaths from Covid-19 were reported in the past 24 hours, while another 20,890 infections were confirmed.

Today’s surge in deaths marks the largest increase on a Monday since May 25, when 104 deaths were recorded.

It brings the country’s official death toll to 44,998.

However, separate figures released by the Office for National Statistics show that 59,000 deaths have now been recorded in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.

The government said that as of 9 a.m. Monday, another 20,890 laboratory-confirmed cases of the virus had been recorded across the country.

This brings the total number of infections in Britain since the start of the pandemic to 894,690.

Meanwhile, a further 91 people who tested positive for coronavirus were confirmed to have died in hospitals in England, bringing the death toll in the country’s hospitals to 31,910.

The patients were between 44 and 95 years old and all had known underlying health conditions, NHS England said.

The update comes as the government faced criticism for considering loosening the rules for people ordered to isolate themselves after coming into contact with someone who had tested positive for the disease due to low levels of home stay compliance.

The ministers confirmed that they were looking to reduce the time people have to self-quarantine at home from 14 days to between 10 days and a week. But Number 10 insisted that a decision had not yet been made.

Paul Hunter, a professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia, told the Today show that it would “certainly increase the risk of transmission” because people infected late in the incubation period could “come out into the public again.”

But Health Secretary Matt Hancock pointed to France as an example of where a similar measure had been introduced and said any change would be “on the general clinical judgment” of what was necessary.