Coronavirus cases rising rapidly across the country with 65 deaths every HOUR - STAY AT HOME

Coronavirus cases are rising rapidly across the country with 65 deaths EVERY HOUR in Britain. We are in a National Lockdown, PLEASE STAY AT HOME.

A further 1,564 people have died in the UK in the daily death toll, within 28 days of a positive Covid test - the biggest figure reported in a single day since the pandemic began. That’s 65 people EVERY HOUR that are dying of Covid in Britain and with almost 2,000 new cases every hour, the message is still STAY AT HOME.

It brings the total number of deaths by that measure to 84,767.

Dr Yvonne Doyle, medical director at Public Health England, said there have now been more deaths in the second wave than the first and the prime minister warned there was a "very substantial" risk of intensive care capacity being "overtopped".

Speaking to the Commons Liaison Committee, Boris Johnson said the situation was "very, very tough" in the NHS and the strain on staff was "colossal".

He appealed to the public to follow lockdown rules, which require people in England to stay at home and only go out for limited reasons, such as for food shopping, exercise, or work if they cannot do so from home.

Similar measures are in place across much of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

A further 47,525 new cases have also been recorded. That’s almost 2,000 new cases every hour.

Perhaps the most distressing element about the latest Covid deaths is that the numbers are almost certainly going to rise from here.

People who are dying now are likely to have been infected three or so weeks ago, around Christmas time.

That was at a point when infection rates were rising quite steeply, so in the coming days and weeks we should, sadly, expect to see more deaths than this being reported.

Today's figures are affected by the weekend, which sees delays in reporting deaths that tend to translate into higher figures from Tuesday onwards.

Currently around 1,000 people a day on average are dying once you take this into account. But the figures also provide some hope. For the third day in a row the number of newly diagnosed infections are well below 50,000.

There have been several days where they have exceeded 60,000.

If that trend continues, and the number of new cases keeps coming down, that will eventually translate into the number of deaths falling. But it is going to take some weeks for that to happen.

These are, as many have been saying, the darkest days of the pandemic so far.

The good news is that from today, Thursday 14th January, some High Street pharmacies in England will start vaccinating people from priority groups with 200 providing jabs in the next two weeks.

Six chemists in Halifax, Macclesfield, Widnes, Guildford, Edgware and Telford are the first to offer appointments to those invited by letter. None in Sefton yet but hopefully soon.

But pharmacists say many more sites should be allowed to give the jab, not just the largest ones. More than 2.6 million people in the UK have now received their first dose.

Across the UK, the target is to vaccinate 15 million people in the top four priority groups - care home residents and workers, NHS frontline staff, the over-70s and the extremely clinically vulnerable - by mid-February.

The vaccines - made by either Oxford-AstraZeneca or Pfizer-BioNTech - are being administered at hospitals, care homes, GP surgeries and vaccination centres.

National Lockdown in Sefton

From the 5th January 2021, the government has announced that people in England must 'stay at home' except for essential purposes.

You can find out what you can and cannot do here from the Government website.

COVID Testing

Walk-through SMART COVID-19 testing for residents who DON'T have COVID-19 symptoms is now taking place.

SMART testing will tell you if you have COVID-19. You will get your result in 30 minutes.

Find out out more about COVID testing for people who DO and DON'T have symptoms. (Link takes you to Sefton Council website)

Care Homes

Care homes will have to complete a risk assessment and develop a visiting policy which will determine if visits can go ahead and how they will be facilitated.

Care homes with outbreaks are not able to open to visitors.

The guidance can be found here

Day Care services

Day services in Sefton will be able to open to no more than 15 people in any setting and we will require risk assessments and distance support measures are in place. This will mean fewer people will be able to attend .