Covid: 82,886 test positive for virus in UK in past 24 hrs

Cases of Omicron have jumped by 21 per cent in the past 24 hours

Health secretary Sajid Javid has said that he cannot rule out the possibility of further Covid restrictions being implemented before Christmas (AFP via Getty Images)

The UK has recorded 82,886 new cases of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, this is a slight drop in the number of cases recorded.

On Saturday, 90,418 cases of Covid-19 were recorded in the UK.

Although there has been a slight drop in case numbers, cases have overall increased by 51.9 percent in the last seven days compared to the previous week, according to data provided by the government.

Meanwhile, there have been 12,133 cases of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 recorded in the past 24 hours, taking the total number of confirmed Omicron cases in the UK to 37,101.

The number of recorded cases of Omicron jumped 21 per cent between Saturday and Sunday, with 10,059 cases of the variant recorded on Saturday afternoon compared to 12,133 on Sunday.

Data showed that the number of deaths within 28 days of a positive test has decreased somewhat in the past 24 hours.

A total of 45 were recorded on Sunday, compared to 125 on Saturday.

Overall there has also been a slight drop of 6.5 per cent in the number of deaths recorded in the past seven days.

In terms of vaccinations, over 28,060,874 booster and third vaccine doses have been given out in the UK.

This means that in total, 48.8 per cent of the UK population over the age of 12 have received a booster or third dose of the vaccine.

The news comes as health secretary Sajid Javid has refused to rule out further Covid restrictions before Christmas.

Mr Javid said that there are “no guarantees in this pandemic,” following warnings from government scientists that tougher measures may be needed before the new year to prevent “considerable pressure” on the NHS.

Elsewhere, in London, the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said that he thinks that further restrictions are “inevitable” as a “major incident” has been declared in the capital.