There had been a further 6,914 lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK as of 9am on Thursday, the government has announced, and 59 new deaths.
It brings the total number of cases in the UK to 460,178.
Experts have previously warned that describing the daily figure as a record could be “misleading” as it is not clear how many people were actually infected during the height of the first wave due to a lack of community testing at the time.
The government also said a further 59 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Thursday.
This brings the UK total to 42,202.
Separate figures published by the UK’s statistics agencies show there have now been nearly 57,900 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.
The government said there were 332 Covid-19 patients in mechanical ventilator beds as of Wednesday, up from 312 on Tuesday, and 2,276 Covid-19 patients currently in hospital, as reported on Tuesday, up from 2,252 reported on Monday.
There were 323 Covid-19 patients admitted to hospital and reported on Sunday, the latest figures available, bringing the total at that time to 141,964.
