Coronavirus cases rise by 40 per cent in one week as 19,724 test positive and another 137 people die

CORONAVIRUS cases in Britain have hit their second highest ever rise with another 19,724 infected by the deadly bug.

A further 137 people have been killed in 24 hours - bringing the UK's overall covid-19 death toll to 43,155.

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Today's stats represent a 40 per cent jump in the space of a week with Department of Health figures recording 14,162 cases last Wednesday and 70 deaths.

It also means the overall total of UK covid-19 infections has now risen to 654,644.

Britain's previous highest rise in cases was 22,961 on October 4.

However, that was after Public Health England admitted they had missed 15,841 cases from their official stats between September 25 and October 2.

The backlog led to an over-inflated record high of 22,961 additional cases.

Separate figures today show there were 4,146 Covid-19 patients in hospital in England as of Wednesday, up from 2,944 a week ago, while 468 Covid-19 hospital patients were in ventilation beds, up from 376 a week ago.

A total of 647 patients with confirmed Covid-19 were admitted to hospitals in England on Monday, compared with 472 a week earlier.

It comes as:

• Boris Johnson said a national circuit-breaker would be a disaster
• England & Wales suffered one of highest excess death tolls in world
• Wales to BAN English people from covid hotspots visiting from Friday
• Huge crowds of revellers in Liverpool ‘shame our city’, says mayor

Yesterday covid-19 deaths hit 143 in the country’s deadliest day in four months.

Another 17,423 more people tested positive for the deadly bug - the third highest increase ever.

The last time fatalities in the UK were so high was on June 3, when 155 people died.

The following day, 134 Brits lost their lives - and the number then dropped over the summertime.

Today Boris Johnson said a "circuit breaker" lockdown would be a "disaster" as he again slapped down Labour's demands for a UK-wide shutdown in a fiery PMQs.

The PM lashed out at Sir Keir Starmer for seeing the pandemic as a "good crisis to exploit" as he rejected his calls for a "circuit breaker" shutdown.

It comes after a stormy morning at Westminster with Tory 'hawks' lashing out at the idea of a national lockdown as a "business breaker."

Mr Johnson stormed this lunch time that he would not U-turn on his regional approach which will keep kids in school and keep businesses going.

He said: "(The three tiered local lockdowns) would deliver the reduction in the R, locally, regionally, to avert what none of us want to see.

"And that is the disaster of a national lockdown. We don't want to go there, we want a regional approach. He should cooperate with it."

"(Sir Keir) wants to close pubs he wants to close bars he wants to close businesses in areas where the incidence is low.

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"Let's try to avoid the misery of another national lockdown in which he would want to impose as I say in a headlong way.

"Let's work together to keep kids in school, who he will now yank out school in a peremptory way, keep our economy going, keep jobs and livelihoods supported in this country."

In an intense exchange, Sir Keir accused the PM of being an "opportunist all his life".

He lashed out at the PM, saying: "This is difficult for him to understand. But having read and considered the Sage advice I have genuinely concluded that a circuit breaker is in the national interest."

Millions of Brits will go into tougher lockdown measures this week.

Liverpool will be the first area of England to go into the third tier of strict new measures.

Pubs, bars and gyms will shut, while there will also be a ban on mixing households indoors or outdoors, and travel in or out of the area will be limited.

Meanwhile, new stats show coronavirus deaths have risen in all but two areas of England.

Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reveals fatalities are up for the fourth week in a row - in all areas except the West Midlands and south-west England.

And Nightingale hospitals have been placed on standby across the North — where up to a third of critical care beds are already taken by Covid patients.

Around four in ten of all ­coronavirus cases are in the North West, health bosses say.

London - currently in the 'medium' tier one category - also looks set to head into further lockdown measures within days.

Mayor Sadiq Khan said: “The virus is now spreading very quickly in every corner of London.

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“London is at ‘medium’ in the Government’s new alert levels.

"However, Londoners should understand this could change very quickly — potentially even this week.”

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