'The strain is colossal' - Coronavirus death toll hits 100,000 as daily fatalities and hospital admissions break grim records

Today (Wednesday) saw the highest daily death total so far, with 1,564 fatalities recorded within 28 days of a positive test.

The latest figures mean the grim milestone of more than 100,000 deaths involving coronavirus has now been passed in the UK, according to official data.

And Boris Johnson warned there was a “very substantial” risk of intensive care units being overwhelmed.

The total is based on the most up-to-date statistics for people who had Covid-19 recorded on their death certificate, plus deaths known to have occurred more recently.

It is a more comprehensive measure of Covid-19 deaths than the figures published daily by the Government, which include only those who died within 28 days of testing positive, and which currently stands at 84,767.

By contrast the wider death toll stands at 101,160, according to analysis by the PA news agency.

The grim milestone comes almost a year since the UK’s first death involving Covid-19, on January 30, 2020.

The statistics came as the Prime Minister promised 24/7 delivery of the coronavirus vaccine “as soon as we can”.

In Yorkshire hospitals 53 deaths were recorded yesterday, meaning at least 6,493 people have now died from the virus in the region.

While the number of Covid-19 patients in hospital stood at a record more than 36,000, including almost 3,500 on ventilation.

In the North East and Yorkshire - the NHS region for which statistics are recorded - this had risen by 21 per cent in a week to 3,476.

All regions except London were facing record admissions.

The Prime Minister said today that “the situation is very, very tough indeed in the NHS” and “the strain is colossal” on staff.

“If you ask me when do we think that the ICU capacity is likely to be overtopped, I can’t give you a prediction for that,” he told MPs.

“But all I can say is that the risk is very substantial and we have to keep the pressure off the NHS and the only way to do that is to follow the current lockdown.”

Dr Yvonne Doyle, medical director at Public Health England, said: “With each passing day, more and more people are tragically losing their lives to this terrible virus, and today we have reported the highest number of deaths on a single day since the pandemic began.”

She added there had been “more deaths in the second wave than the first” although did not provide any definition of either time period.

The soaring numbers will prompt calls for swifter action on rolling out the coronavirus vaccine, and Mr Johnson today said vaccinations will be offered 24 hours a day, seven days a week, “as soon as we can” after No 10 said on Monday there was “not a clamour” for such arrangements.

Speaking during Prime Minister’s Questions, Mr Johnson said “at the moment the limit is on supply” of vaccines.

But Vaccine Minister Nadhim Zahawi, appearing in front of the Science and Technology Select Committee, refused to confirm the stock numbers when pressed by MPs, citing security reasons.

At the same committee meeting Tom Keith-Roach, president at AstraZeneca UK, when questioned on when the firm would be able to deliver the promised 2m doses a week to the UK, said: “I expect us to get there very rapidly and I would say that the middle of February is a conservative position, therefore.”

Initially this had been promised as mid-January.

Mr Zahawi said that initial vaccination supply had been “lumpy” but he now had “line of sight” of deliveries to the end of February.

“In any manufacturing process, especially one where you’re dealing with a biological compound, a novel vaccine is lumpy at the outset,” he said.

“There’s no doubt that it was, but getting better. It begins to stabilise and you get a much clearer line of sight.”

More than 2.6m people across the UK have so far received a first dose of the coronavirus vaccine.

The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine provides the most straightforward route to protect around 15m of the most vulnerable people by the Government’s target of mid-February because it is logistically less complicated than the Pfizer jab, which needs to be kept deep-frozen. It has been pledged that all other adults will be inoculated by the autumn.

In North Yorkshire, a health boos warned of the “dangerous situation” and being in a “place we didn’t want to be”.

Amanda Bloor, from North Yorkshire Clinical Commissioning Group, said “the numbers are really quite stark now” in relation to those suffering from coronavirus in the county.

“We are in a dangerous situation. This is the place we didn’t want to be. The trend is upwards,” she said.

“Our local hospitals are extremely busy. I’ve spoken to my hospital colleagues and they’re seeing unprecedented demand.

“It’s imperative that everybody follows the stay at home guidance.”