UK records 6,236 new cases of coronavirus - highest figure since March 25
4 June 2021, 17:02 | Updated: 4 June 2021, 17:07
The UK has recorded a further 6,236 cases of coronavirus, the highest figure in more than two months.
The Government said 6,238 lab-confirmed cases had been recorded as of 9am on Friday.
It is the highest single-day figure since March 25.
On Thursday, 5,274 more cases were confirmed.
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As of Friday, a further 11 people have died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19.
It brings the total number of UK deaths by that measure to 127,823.
Separate figures published by the Office for National Statistics show there have now been 153,000 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.
It was reported earlier that cases involving the Indian variant have increased by 79% in the UK compared with last week.
There are now 12,431 confirmed cases of the variant, also known as Delta, up from 6,959 last week.
Another potential coronavirus variant, thought to be linked to Nepal, has also been detected in the UK.
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Meanwhile, the coronavirus reproduction number, or R value, in England is between 1 and 1.2, according to the latest government figures.
Last week, it was between 1 and 1.1.
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 1 and 1.2 means that, on average, every 10 people infected will infect between 10 and 12 other people.
The growth rate, which estimates how quickly the number of infections is changing day by day, is between zero and 3% for England.
It means that the number of new infections could be broadly flat or growing by up to 3% every day.
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It comes as separate figures show coronavirus infections in England are at their highest level since mid-April.
According to the latest estimates from the Office for National Statistics, around one in 640 people in private households in England had Covid-19 in the week to May 29.
In Wales, there are "early signs" of an increase in the percentage of people testing positive for Covid-19, with around one in 1,050 people estimated to have had Covid-19 in the week to May 29, the ONS said.
This is up from one in 3,850 in the previous week and is also the highest estimate since the week to April 16.
In Northern Ireland the trend is "uncertain", with an estimate of around one in 800 for the week to May 29, broadly unchanged from one in 820 in the previous week.
The trend is also "uncertain" for Scotland, where the latest estimate is around one in 680, broadly unchanged from one in 630.
