Covid-19: daily reported cases in the UK increase by a quarter

The number of Covid-19 cases reported daily has increased by a quarter, according to the latest figures from the UK government.

There have been 6,178 coronavirus cases in the UK in the past 24 hours, an increase of 1,252 from Tuesday and 37 deaths.

Yvonne Doyle, Medical Director of Public Health England, said it was “essential” that the public follow the new measures taken to curb the spread.

Tighter restrictions were announced across the UK on Tuesday, including a 10pm closing time for pubs in England.

People are told to work from home if they can, the rules on covering their faces have been expanded, and the number of people allowed at weddings in England has been cut in half.

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Hospitality establishments in Scotland will also have to close early, but in Wales restrictions are limited to stopping the sale of alcohol at 10pm. Scotland and Northern Ireland have also gone further by preventing households from mixing indoors.

We must be very careful not to read too much in the increase of a single day: the jump of more than 1,000 is fast and if it is repeated it would mean that the number of daily cases would double in less than a week. But the figures can vary from day to day.

However, the UK was warned that it should be prepared for cases to continue to grow. The number of new cases is well below what was observed at the peak, which was estimated at 100,000 cases per day. We don’t know for sure, as the lack of testing meant the system was only picking up the tip of the iceberg at the time.

Clearly, we are not detecting all cases now – evidence from last week’s surveillance report suggested that perhaps only half were being identified by the testing program.

What matters now is whether this scale of increase is repeated in the coming days and weeks, and how that translates into hospitalizations and deaths, which are also increasing.

Data from Spain and France suggest that sharp increases may slow down and upward trends in hospital admissions may be reversed.

But make no mistake, the UK is entering a turning point in the battle against the virus.

Former Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab defended the new “balanced, specific, and proportionate” coronavirus measures amid criticism from some scientists.

The measures have exposed a divide among scientists. Professor John Edmunds, who advises the government, said they did not go “far enough.”

Other scientists said they hoped to show a shift toward coherent policy.