The UK has reported another 53,135 cases of coronavirus, the highest recorded daily total since the pandemic began.
There were also 414 deaths reported within 28 days of a positive COVID-19 test, compared with 357 on Monday, taking the official UK total to 71,567.
A total of 41,385 new cases of the virus were reported on Monday, the previous highest ever daily increase. As of Tuesday's figures, the total number of positive tests across the country since the pandemic began stands at 2,382,865.
The latest daily figures come after it was revealed that England's hospitals are now treating more patients than during the peak of the first wave in April.
More than 21,700 beds across the NHS in England are occupied by confirmed COVID-19 patients, with over 1,600 of those receiving mechanical ventilation.
The latest UK-wide hospital stats are only available up until 22 December, when 21,286 people with COVID-19 were in hospital across the four home nations. But that is only slightly less than the 21,683 recorded on 12 April.
Dr Susan Hopkins, the senior medical advisor for Public Health England, said: "We are continuing to see unprecedented levels of COVID-19 infection across the UK, which is of extreme concern particularly as our hospitals are at their most vulnerable."
"Whilst the number of cases reported today include some from over the festive period these figures are largely a reflection of a real increase," Dr Hopkins added.
Margaret Keenan, the 90-year-old grandmother-of-four who became the world's first patient to receive the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine outside a clinical trial, received her second jab on Tuesday.
In the 13 days following her vaccination on 8 December, more than 520,000 people in England received their first jab, according to official figures.
But ministers have been warned that the UK must double its vaccination target to two million a week in order to avoid a third wave of infections.
NHS England chief executive Sir Simon Stevens, said: "Now again we are back in the eye of the storm with a second wave of coronavirus sweeping Europe and, indeed, this country.
"Many of us have lost family, friends, colleagues and - at a time of year when we would normally be celebrating - a lot of people are understandably feeling anxious, frustrated and tired."
Sounding a note of hope, Sir Simon added: "We think that by late spring with vaccine supplies continuing to come on stream we will have been able to offer all vulnerable people across this country COVID vaccination.
"That perhaps provides the biggest chink of hope for the year ahead."
The government hopes that the imminent approval of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine will allow an expansion of the vaccination programme, which is currently based only on the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMibGh0dHBzOi8vbmV3cy5za3kuY29tL3N0b3J5L2NvdmlkLTE5LWNhc2VzLXN1cmdlLXRvLWZyZXNoLWhpZ2gtYXMtYW5vdGhlci01My0xMzUtaW5mZWN0aW9ucy1yZWNvcmRlZC0xMjE3NDkxMdIBcGh0dHBzOi8vbmV3cy5za3kuY29tL3N0b3J5L2FtcC9jb3ZpZC0xOS1jYXNlcy1zdXJnZS10by1mcmVzaC1oaWdoLWFzLWFub3RoZXItNTMtMTM1LWluZmVjdGlvbnMtcmVjb3JkZWQtMTIxNzQ5MTE?oc=5
2020-12-29 17:03:09Z
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