Over six million Covid-19 cases recorded in UK since start of pandemic
6 August 2021, 18:30
More than six million coronavirus cases have now been recorded in the UK since the start of the pandemic, according to government data.
The grim milestone was reached as it emerged that in the last 24 hour period there had been a further 31,808 lab-confirmed Covid-19 cases.
However government data released today showed that the number of coronavirus patients in hospital in England has dropped for the fourth day in a row.
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READ MORE: Covid-19: England's R number falls sharply to between 0.8 and 1.1
The latest figures from NHS England show there were 4,879 coronavirus patients in hospital in England at 8am on Friday August 6, down 4.5% week-on-week from the 5,111 reported on Friday July 30.
It also emerged today that the coronavirus reproduction number, or R value, in England has fallen and is between 0.8 and 1.1, according to the latest Government figures.
Last week, it was between 1.1 and 1.4.
R represents the average number of people each Covid-19 positive person goes on to infect.
When the figure is above 1, an outbreak can grow exponentially but when it is below 1, it means the epidemic is shrinking.
An R number between 0.8 and 1.1 means that, on average, every 10 people infected will infect between 8 and 11 other people.
Figures up to August 5 shows that of the 86,009,359 Covid jabs given in the UK, 46,961,830 were first doses, a rise of 35,500 on the previous day.
39,047,529 were second doses, an increase of 172,692.
A further 92 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Friday, bringing the UK total to 130,178.
Separate figures published by the Office for National Statistics show there have been 155,000 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.
