UK records 6,914 new coronavirus cases and 59 deaths Picture: Metro.co.uk
Daily cases have quickly risen beyond first wave levels (Picture: Metro.co.uk)

Another 6,914 people have tested positive for coronavirus in the UK, bringing the country’s total number of cases to 460,178.

Yesterday the toll passed 7,000, for the second day in a row, a number that was never reached during Britain’s first peak in April.

The Department of Health and Social Care confirmed another 59 fatalities, bringing the UK’s official Covid-19 death toll to 42,143.

As the nation approaches a second wave, Boris Johnson warned yesterday that he ‘will not hesitate to take further measures’ if the situation worsens, but urged Britons to ‘work together now’ to avoid the need for a full scale lockdown.

Challenging suggestions that the country should ‘give up and let the virus take its course’, he said he ‘profoundly disagreed’ with that plan, adding that he didn’t think the British people wanted to ‘throw in the sponge’.

A map presented at yesterday’s Downing Street press conference by England’s chief medical officer Chris Whitty shows just how rapidly coronavirus cases have risen once again.

He said far more younger people are catching and spreading the virus this time round, with significant increases in the Midlands and northern England.

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While hospital admissions are lower than in April, Professor Whitty warned there has been a ‘significant uptick in the number of people who are entering intensive care’, particularly in the North East and North West and to some extent in London.

It comes after new local lockdown rules came into force in the North East banning people from different households from meeting indoors.

But with varying restrictions in different parts of England, even the Prime Minister got muddled up during a conference and mistakenly said the ‘rule of six’ didn’t apply for outdoor gatherings in the North East.

The Government are reportedly looking at introducing a ‘three-tier’ traffic light system of local lockdown rules, with the hope that a simpler and more streamlined system will make it easier for people to stick to the rules.

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Despite daily cases growing while millions of people remain under some form of local lockdown, new figure suggest the infection rate could be slowing after restrictions were tightened.

Early results from the largest Covid-19 study in England found the R rate – the rate the virus reproduces – has fallen from 1.7 to around 1.1 since the rule of six and other curbs were introduced.

The director of the study, by Imperial College London and Ipsos Mori, said the interim findings from 80,000 participants ‘reinforced the need for protective measures’ to help defeat the virus.

However, although the growth of the virus may be slowing the scientists also warned cases are high, with one in every 200 people infected.

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