Britain records 41,385 Covid cases and 357 more deaths as second wave continues to grow

Britain today recorded 41,385 cases of Covid and 357 more deaths as the second wave of the disease continues to grow with a highly-infectious strain spreading rapidly across the country.

Department of Health figures show the UK’s daily infection toll is technically the largest ever recorded and is up 24 per cent on last Monday’s count. 

But the true scale of the Covid crisis in the first wave was never laid bare because of a lack of testing, meaning it is impossible to tell if this is Britain’s worst day of the pandemic so far. Top scientists estimate up to 100,000 people were catching the disease every day during the darkest days of the spring.

Government statistics also show today’s death count – which takes the UK’s overall number of lab-confirmed Covid victims past 71,000 – is up 66 per cent on last week’s. 

But death counts on Mondays are always affected by a recording lag at the weekend, meaning the daily death toll will inevitably spike later in the week. Scotland has also not posted their daily fatality figures since Christmas Eve, suggesting there will be a spike when officials eventually get back-on-track with publishing the data.

Hospitals are also beginning to feel the brunt of the growing outbreak, with experts warning the NHS in England on track to have 20,000 coronavirus patients who need NHS treatment on New Year’s Eve.

Department of Health statistics show 18,227 Covid-infected patients were being cared for in hospitals across the nation on Christmas Eve – a 15 per cent rise in a week. April 12 was the busiest day of the Covid pandemic so far for hospitals in England, when 18,974 patients were occupying beds. 

Separate figures laying bare the true scale of the second wave show more than 90 per cent of councils in England saw their coronavirus outbreaks grow before Christmas.

Around 24million people are already living under the draconian stay-at-home orders, with ministers slapping the strict measures on London, the South East and East to control rapidly growing Covid outbreaks. But millions more face being hit with the toughest curbs when officials review the existing four-tier system on Wednesday.