GRIM MILESTONE
COVID has now killed more than 80,000 people in Britain after another 1,035 deaths were announced today.
An unbelievable 3million people in the UK have been infected with the deadly virus - with 59,937 testing positive in the past 24 hours.
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Today's death toll is slightly lower than yesterday's - but it is the fourth day in a row when more than 1,000 lives were claimed.
It brings the total number of deaths within 28 days of a positive test to 80,868.
Yesterday, the highest number of new infections and deaths were recorded in a single day.
New confirmed daily cases rocketed to 68,058 while there were 1,325 Covid-related deaths.
The R-rate of infection in the worst-affected parts of the country stands at 1.4 — far above the target of under 1.
In Scotland today there have been 93 more deaths from coronavirus, equally the record set yesterday, according to official figures.
The death toll under this measure - of people who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days - is now 4,965.
A further 1,865 positive cases were also reported by the Scottish Government.
Figures show the daily test positivity rate is 8.7%, up from 8.1% on Friday, when 2,301 positive cases were recorded.
A total of 147,889 people have tested positive in Scotland since the start of the pandemic.
In Wales, there have been a further 2,373 cases taking the total number of confirmed cases to 168,094.
Public Health Wales reported another 62 deaths, taking the total in Wales since the start of the pandemic to 3,919.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan declared a major incident in hospitals amid soaring admissions. He claimed the spread of coronavirus was now out of control in the capital.
It comes as experts label the Covid lockdown "too lax" and have even called for the measures be made tougher amid fears the bug could continue to spread.
Brits have been told to stay at home with non-essential shops forced to close and families unable to see each other under the current restrictions - which could last until the end of March.
Susan Michie, professor of health psychology at University College London, said the current lockdown was "too lax" to stop the bug from spreading.
The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) member told BBC Radio 4's Today: "It is definitely too lax, because if you think about it and compare ourselves with March, what do we have now?
"We have the winter season and the virus survives longer in the cold, plus people spend more time indoors and we know aerosol transmission, which happens indoors, is a very big source of transmission for this virus.
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"And secondly we have this new variant which is 50-70% more infectious. You put those two things together, alongside the NHS being in crisis, we should have a stricter rather than less strict lockdown than we had back in March."
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It comes as government ministers are considering even tougher measures including making face masks compulsory in busy outdoor areas.
London mayor Sadiq Khan has called for face coverings to be worn outside the home as he declared a major incident in the capital.
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