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The UK has announced more than 10,000 daily cases of coronavirus for the first time since mass testing began.
There were 12,872 new cases, while a further 49 people died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19.
However, the government said a technical problem meant that last week’s unannounced cases had been added to the day’s total.
It comes after data released this week suggested infections may be increasing more slowly than in previous weeks.
These data were based on weekly tests among a sample of people in the community to get an idea of how many people in England have the virus at any one time.
But the government is also keeping a close eye on the daily number of positive cases, providing the most up-to-date snapshot.
However, he posted a warning message on his “dashboard”, explaining that the totals reported in the next few days would include some cases from the previous week, “increasing the number of reported cases.”
The daily total saw a significant increase from 4,044 on Monday to a high of 7,143 on Tuesday. However, for the next four days, the daily total held steady, varying between 6,914 and 7,108, before the big jump in numbers announced on Saturday.
The figures announced on Saturday would also have been partially inflated by the fact that 264,979 tests were processed the previous day, the third highest so far in a single 24-hour period.
Saturday’s figure brings the total number of reported cases in the UK to 480,017.
The rise in the UK is largely mirrored across Europe.
- On the same day, France registered 16,972 new cases, a new daily record for the country.
- The Netherlands and Belgium respectively announced 3,967 and 3,175 new positive results, also new highs in both countries.
- Meanwhile, Russia, which has the largest population in Europe, recorded 9,859 cases, its highest level since May.
Tighter restrictions went into effect in parts of northern England on Saturday after a surge in coronavirus cases.
It is now illegal to meet people inside other homes in the Liverpool, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough and Warrington city region.
It means that a third of the UK is now under tighter restrictions.
They were also reinforced this week in Newcastle, Northumberland, Gateshead, North Tyneside, South Tyneside, Sunderland and County Durham, as well as in four areas of North Wales.
The new rules emerge as hundreds of Northumbria University students self-isolate after testing positive for Covid.
Elsewhere, people arriving in the UK from Turkey and Poland now have to self-quarantine for two weeks.
The new rules, which also apply to the Caribbean islands of Bonaire, St Eustatius and Saba, went into effect at 04:00 BST on Saturday.
After a steady decline since the first peak in April, daily confirmed coronavirus cases in the UK have risen again since July, and the growth rate has risen sharply since the end of August.
Sage, the body that advises the UK government, says it is still “highly likely” that the epidemic is growing exponentially across the country.
His latest R-number estimate, which indicates how fast the epidemic is growing or declining, rose to between 1.3 and 1.6.
But a survey by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimates that there were 8,400 new cases per day in England in the week to September 24, slightly less than the previous week’s estimate of 9,600 daily cases.
ONS estimates of how much of the population is currently infected are based on testing a representative sample of people in households with or without symptoms.
It is different from the number published daily by the Department of Health. That records positive cases in people with possible Covid symptoms requesting tests.