Daily virus death toll the highest yet
The UK has recorded a further 1,610 coronavirus deaths – the highest number reported on a single day since the outbreak began.
Public Health England said the figure was of those who had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Tuesday, bringing the UK total to 91,470.
Separate figures published by the UK's statistics agencies for deaths where Covid-19 has been mentioned on the death certificate – together with additional data on deaths that have occurred in recent days – show that there have now been 108,000 deaths involving Covid-19 in the UK.
Many of the deaths included in Tuesday' s total will have takenplace over the past few days, with some occurring more than a week ago, but are only now being reported due to the fact that fewer deaths are formally recorded at weekends.
The Government also said that, as of 9am on Tuesday, there had been a further 33,355 lab-confirmed cases of corona virus in the UK.
It brings the total number of cases in the UK to 3,466,849.
Responding to the latest figures, shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth tweeted: "Awful. Horrific. Devastating. And it didn't have to be like this."
Meanwhile, another local MP has joined our petitioncalling on the Government to allow England’ s 11,500 pharmacies to offer corona virus vaccine jabs.
A Shot in the Arm, run by the Sunderland Echo and our sister newspapers and websites nationwide, urges Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Health Secretary Matt Hancock to bring the roll-out programme closer to many people’s homes by utilising the country’ s community pharmacies.
Sharon Hodgson, the Labour MP for Washington and Sunderland West, has now signed the petition and urged readers to do likewise.
She said: “Rolling out the vaccine is our hope of getting back to some kind of normality.
"That’s why I’m pleased to add my name to this petition, calling for local pharmacies to be able to deliver the Covid-19 vaccination programme, and I encourage others to do the same.”
To sign the petition, which has already attracted more than 25,000 signatures in support, go to change.org and search for All pharmacies should be able to play a part in the UK's Covid-19 vaccine programme.