New UK coronavirus cases spike to second highest level since June as death toll jumps by 6

Kit Heren20 August 2020

A further 1,182 new coronavirus cases were confirmed today, the second highest number of Covid-19 infections in the UK for two months.

Daily Government coronavirus data reveals that the new infections reported on Thursday were only topped by figures on August 14 - when 1,441 people were infected - over a period stretching back to June 21, when 1,221 cases were reported.

New coronavirus cases have generally been creeping up recently since a lower period in July, with more than 1,000 new infections reported on nine out of 12 days since August 9, Government figures show.

Before that there was a period of six weeks, stretching back to late June, when new cases did not top 1,000. New infection numbers went as low as 352 on July 6.

Hospital staff with a patient 
AP

Overall, 322,280 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in the UK since the start of the outbreak, the Government said on Thursday.

It comes as six more people died of the virus in the UK in hospitals, care homes and the wider community.

The Government said 41,403 people had died in the UK within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of 5pm on Wednesday.

Coronavirus hits the UK - In pictures

1/61

Separate figures published by the UK’s statistics agencies show there have now been 57,000 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.

The UK's regional authorities published figures earlier in the day showing a further five people had died in UK hospitals, including a 33-year-old with no underlying health conditions.

The new deaths, which were all in England, take the UK's coronavirus death toll in hospitals to 34,124.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in