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UK records 223 Covid deaths and 43,738 daily cases

The UK faced 223 Covid deaths and 43,738 new infections on Tuesday.

It is the highest figure for daily reported deaths since March 9.

A further 223 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday which brought the UK total to 138,629.

Separate figures published by the Office for National Statistics show there have now been 164,000 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 has been mentioned on the death certificate.

By contrast, daily covid cases jumped to nearly 50,000 on Monday.

The latest figures were revealed as No10 warned of a challenging winter ahead.

Downing Street has said it is closely watching new Covid variant AY4.2.

No10 said there is no evidence it spreads more easily.

Watch: COVID-19 - How would Plan B tackle rising coronavirus cases - and when could it come into force?

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “It’s something we’re keeping a very close eye on.

“There’s no evidence to suggest that this variant … the AY4.2 one … is more easily spread. There’s no evidence for that but as you would expect we’re monitoring it closely and won’t hesitate to take action if necessary.”

Elsewhere, Prof Neil Ferguson - who became known as “Professor lockdown” - warned a Plan B may need to be put in place in the winter.

The member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) from Imperial College London said: “I don’t think we’re looking at another lockdown... The worst case here are demands on the NHS... It’s very unlikely we’ll see anything like the levels of deaths we saw last year, for instance.

“Coming into the winter, there may be a Plan B which needs to be implemented, which involves some rolling back of measures, but I doubt that we’ll ever get close to lockdown we were in January of this year.”

He added: “I don’t think it’s a reason to panic right now but I would certainly like to see vaccination booster doses accelerated, vaccination for teenagers accelerated.”

Watch: How the world could be better after COVID

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