Covid: More than 44,000 coronavirus cases reported in a day and 135 more deaths

A further 135 people have died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19, the government has said.

The Department of Health's latest figures, as of 9am on Saturday, bring the UK's overall death toll since the start of the outbreak to 139,461.

Another 44,985 lab-confirmed Covid cases were also recorded in the UK, the government said.

The figures were only for England because of a “processing issue”, the government added, while the daily vaccination data for England was also not published on Saturday.

Separate figures published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show there have been more than 164,000 deaths registered in the UK where coronavirus was mentioned on the death certificate.

The number of coronavirus cases and deaths have been creeping up in recent weeks, and on Thursday, the UK recorded more than 50,000 cases for the first time since July.

On Tuesday, the UK reported the highest number of coronavirus deaths in a day since March - 223.

Listen to our coronavirus podcast for the latest analysis

England

A further 125 fatalities were reported in England, bringing the death toll to 121,700. Another 41,259 positive Covid cases were recorded.

Wales

No more deaths were reported in Wales, which means the number of fatalities since the start of the pandemic stands at 6,074.

Scotland

In Scotland, the death toll remains at 9,031, while another 2,403 cases were recorded.

Northern Ireland

Another ten people died in Northern Ireland, increasing the tally of fatalities to 2,656, while a further 1,323 positive cases were returned.