Covid: UK records highest number of daily reported cases since July

The UK has reported 53,945 new confirmed Covid cases, the highest number since mid-July when the country saw a spike following the Euro 2020 football tournament.

Thursday's figure was the highest since July 17 when 54,674 new cases were confirmed.

The latest data comes amid the cancellation of some events in the run up to Christmas due to concern over the Omicron variant of coronavirus.

Despite some businesses and schools having already called off plans to mark the festive season, the government has repeatedly stressed people do not need to cancel their Christmas party plans.

Boris Johnson on Thursday said "people should follow the guidance that we've set out and people shouldn't be cancelling things, and there's no need for that at all, that's not what we're saying".

The UK has reported at least 42 cases of the new variant - 29 in England and 13 in Scotland.

Coronavirus: What you need to know

Additional measures have been brought in across England as a result of the variant.

These include the return of mandatory face coverings in shops and on public transport, as well as an acceleration to the booster vaccine programme.

The Prime Minister received his third Covid jab on Thursday as a part of the rollout.

The latest Covid data also showed a further 141 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Thursday.

Separate figures published by the Office for National Statistics show there have now been 170,000 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.

What do we know about the Omicron variant?

The WHO has said more will be known about the transmissibility of the variant in the coming days.

On Thursday a study from South Africa suggested the variant has “substantial” ability to cause reinfection in people who have previously had Covid-19.

The research, which has not been peer-reviewed, found people who had tested positive for Covid could pick up the virus again.

It did not say how the variant will behave when spreading in a highly vaccinated population such as the UK, however, or whether the virus can evade the protection offered by vaccines against severe disease.