UK records highest daily cases since February 5 as Delta variant runs rampant

Saturday’s case total is the highest since February 5 (Picture: AFP)

The UK recorded another 18,270 cases of coronavirus on Saturday – the highest total since February 5.

Another 23 deaths were also confirmed in the past 24 hours.

The spike in cases is being fuelled by the more infectious Delta variant first identified in India.

The latest data comes after three straight days of more than 15,000 reported cases and a 54.4% rise in infections week-on-week.

Deaths are up 61% but still far lower than in the first and second wave, with the rapid vaccination roll out appearing to take reduce hospitalisations and fatalities.

It means the UK has now recorded 4,717,811 cases and 128,089 deaths since the outbreak began.

The surge in cases may raise questions about whether the plan to lift lockdown entirely in England on July 19 will have to be delayed again.

Cases are now rising significantly in the UK (Picture: Metro.co.uk)

The Government is hoping that jabs can stop the latest wave of Covid from significantly increasing deaths and hospital admissions – though the latter is up 10% week-on-week.

So far, some 44 millions first doses and 32 million second doses have been administered in the UK.

Meanwhile, the Health Secretary Matt Hancock is under growing pressure to resign after breaching Covid rules by kissing his aide, who is also married.

It has also emerged that the brother of Mr Hancock’s ‘mistress’ is a senior director at a private company which has won multiple NHS contracts.

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