THE HIGHEST number of Covid-related deaths during the second wave of the pandemic has now been recorded in the UK.

The Government said a further 1,041 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Wednesday – the highest daily reported total since April 21.

The Government also said that, as of 9am on Wednesday, there had been a further 62,322 lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK.

It brings the total number of cases in the UK to 2,836,801.

However, the Government’s death figures continue to be affected by a lag in the publication of recent data and will contain some deaths that took place over the Christmas and New Year period that have only just been reported.

Meanwhile, separate figures published by the UK’s statistics agencies for deaths where Covid-19 has been mentioned on the death certificate, together with additional data on deaths that have occurred in recent days, show there have now been 93,000 deaths involving Covid-19 in the UK.

It comes as Prime Minister Boris Johnson said there was now a race between the spread of the virus and the delivery of vaccines to the most vulnerable.

He said: “Our emergence from the lockdown cocoon will not be a big bang but a gradual unwrapping.”