Over 140,000 more people have tested positive for coronavirus in the UK, amid reports that lateral flow tests will remain free.
A further 141,472 lab-confirmed Covid-19 cases were recorded as of 9am on Sunday, the fourth consecutive day that infection numbers have fallen.
The education secretary, Nadhim Zahawi, told Sky’s Trevor Phillips on Sunday that the UK had “425m lateral flow tests coming in and they will continue to be available for free“.
The government said a further 97 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid, bringing the total to 150,154.
Separate figures published by the Office for National Statistics show there have now been 174,000 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.
Meanwhile, 51,950,528 first doses of Covid-19 vaccine had been delivered in the UK by 8 January, government figures show. This is a rise of 30,713 on the previous day.
A total of 47,677,951 second doses have been delivered, an increase of 45,468.
A combined total of 35,499,486 booster and third doses have also been given, a day-on-day rise of 225,541. Separate totals for booster and third doses are not available.
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