UK records 207 Covid-19 deaths as cases fall to 43,941

The UK Government has recorded 207 Covid-19 deaths and 43,941 cases in the past 24 hours on Wednesday.

Over the past week, there have been 1,010 deaths within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test - a week-on-week increase of 5.9 per cent.

There were 179 deaths reported this time last week.

Separate figures published by the Office for National Statistics show there have now been 165,000 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.

The latest update shows a fall in cases from last Wednesday when 49,139 positive tests were recorded. As many as 307,716 people had a confirmed positive test result this week - a decrease of 4 per cent compared to the previous week.

It came the day after the UK recorded 263 Covid-related deaths - the highest figure since March 9.

Earlier the chair of the Commons Public Accounts Committee said the controversial NHS Test and trace programme treated taxpayers as if they were an ATM machine.

A highly critical report by the committee found the programme, headed by Baroness Harding, failed in its objectives despite spending £37 billion.

The committee chairwoman Dame Meg Hillier told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: “There was a lot of gung-ho confidence from No 10 that we would have a ‘moonshot’ towards mass testing.

“Those messages kept getting more optimistic. Baroness Harding was also very optimistic about what they achieved.

“But in the end it massively over-promised for what it delivered and it was eye-watering sums of money.

“That is one of the biggest concerns – it is almost as if the taxpayer was an ATM machine. That lack of regard for taxpayer funding is a real concern for us as a committee.”

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