Covid: Nearly 30,000 new cases and 119 new deaths reported

4 August 2021, 21:09

There have been a further 29,312 lab-confirmed Covid-19 cases in the UK in the latest 24-hour period, the Government has announced.

A further 119 people have died within 28 days of a positive test, according to the latest figures.

It brings the total number of deaths in the UK to 130,000, although separate figures by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show there have now been 155,000 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.

The number of deaths is down slightly on yesterday’s figure of 138, which was the highest figure reported since March 17, although there is usually a spike in the figure at the start of the week due to reporting delays over the weekend.

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The number of cases has been falling in recent weeks, having reached a peak of just over 51,000 on July 16.

Hospitalisations have also started to fall, with deaths expected to follow, according to Jamie Jenkins, former head of health statistics at the ONS.

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Speaking to LBC’s Tom Swarbrick on Thursday, Ms Jenkins said: "(Cases) in England and Wales have been coming down... the cases have been falling for a couple of weeks there, then you get that time-lag effect when cases start coming down you get, around five or six days later, you start seeing hospital admissions come down, and then you start seeing deaths come down.

"I think looking at the data, we normally see deaths peaking around 14 days after cases come down, I think we might start being over the hill now when it comes to deaths."

Whilst cases are high, the number of deaths and hospitalisations remains significantly lower than what they were during the peaks in March 2020 and January 2021.

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Government figures also showed that, as of Tuesday 3 August, close to three quarters of UK adults were double jabbed, with just over 88 per cent having received at least one dose.

The latest data from Imperial College’s React Study, one of the country’s largest studies into Covid infections in England, suggested that fully jabbed people were three times less likely to test positive for coronavirus than unvaccinated people.

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Vaccine minister Nadhim Zahawi said the data showed “phenomenal progress” in breaking the link between infections, hospitalisations and deaths, but urged unvaccinated people to get their jabs in order for the trend to continue.

“Today’s results show the positive impact of the vaccination programme with those who are double jabbed three times less likely than unvaccinated people to get the virus and less likely to pass on this awful disease to those around them,” he said.

“We must continue our phenomenal progress – my message to anyone who has not yet been vaccinated is please come forward, to protect yourself, your family and your community.”