Berkshire records more than 1,000 new coronavirus cases in one day

As of Wednesday, December 23, there were 297 patients being treated for Covid-19 in the trust.

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The Government said a further 414 people have died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Tuesday, bringing the UK total to 71,567.

Separate figures published by the UK’s statistics agencies for deaths where Covid-19 has been mentioned on the death certificate, together with additional data on deaths that have occurred in recent days, show there have now been 87,000 deaths involving Covid-19 in the UK.

The Government said that, as of 9am on Tuesday, there had been a further 53,135 lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK - the largest single-day total since the start of the pandemic.

It brings the total number of cases in the UK to 2,382,865.

In Slough, there has been a rise of 259, bringing the total to 6,802.

Elsewhere, there have been increases of 188 in Windsor and Maidenhead, 184 in Wokingham and 158 in Reading.

This is the latest breakdown of confirmed cases for each area of Berkshire since the start of the pandemic:

Bracknell Forest : 3,254 cases (increase of 152)
Reading : 4,867 cases (increase of 158)
Slough : 6,802 cases (increase of 259)
West Berkshire : 3,141 cases (increase of 100)
Windsor and Maidenhead: 4,191 cases (increase of 188)
Wokingham : 4,117 (increase of 184)
This is the latest data on the total number of deaths at NHS trusts in and around Berkshire:

Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust: 530 (increase of eight)
Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust: 289 (no change)
Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust: 24 (no change)

Meanwhile, schools may have to remain shut in order to control coronavirus transmission, senior scientists have warned.

Professor Neil Ferguson, a member of the Government’s New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag), said there had been a “balancing act” since lockdown was initially eased between keeping control of the virus and maintaining “some semblance of normal society”.

But he said planned school reopenings from next week may have to be postponed.

He told BBC Radio 4’s World At One programme: “Clearly nobody wants to keep schools shut. But if that’s the only alternative to having exponentially growing numbers of hospitalisations, that may be required at least for a period.

“There are no easy solutions here. My real concern is that even if universities, schools, do have staggered returns or even stay closed, how easy it would be to maintain control of the virus is unclear now, given how much more transmissible this variant is.”