More than 3 million people in the UK have now had Covid – a grim total that’s soared by a million in the last three weeks alone. The rapid spread of the infection is leading to growing fears among scientists that England’s current lockdown is not strict enough. They’re warning that better compliance and fewer exemptions may now be needed.

In the last 24 hours – a further 59,937 cases have been confirmed.

Another one thousand and thirty five deaths have been reported.

The total number of UK deaths sadly stands at 80,868.

Hospitals continue to struggle as Covid-19 deaths surpass 80,000