Covid: England reports another record rise in cases with 162,572 new infections

Number is 2,000 higher than previous 24-hour period

England records a record high on last day of 2021 [file photo] (Getty Images)

A new record of 162,572 Covid cases has been registered in the past 24 hours in England, government figures show.

The number is up from the 160,276 new lab-confirmed Covid cases in the previous 24-hour period reported on Friday.

The figure does not include cases in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, which have not been published.

A further 154 people died in England within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19, Saturday’s figures showed.

Separate data published by the Office for National Statistics show there have now been 174,000 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.

The new record came as experts warned that mixing by groups of people celebrating New Year’s Eve could cause infections to spread even more rapidly.

With cases already surging, the government is under increasing pressure to bring in fresh restrictions for the public to prevent hospitals becoming overwhelmed with Covid patients.

The government said the figures released were for England only due to a “data issue” and that the full statistics for the four nations would be made public “after the holidays”.

There was also a delay in updating Covid vaccination figures for England, Scotland and Wales.

Only Northern Ireland’s data was available, showing 92 first doses were administered yesterday and 3,037 booster and third doses were given.

It came as a health boss warned the “next few days are crucial” in the fight to reduce the impact of the Omicron variant, and said the government “must be ready to introduce new restrictions at pace if they’re needed”.

Chris Hopson, the chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents health trusts, said staff were working “flat out” and that the NHS was under “arguably more pressure” compared with this time last year.

It came after Sajid Javid, the health secretary, warned restrictions on freedom “must be an absolute last resort”.

Figures showed that hospital admissions in England have risen to their highest level since January 2021, while the number of NHS hospital staff absent due to the virus nearly doubled in a month.