BRITAIN HAS RECORDED recorded 11,007 new daily coronavirus cases, with the emergence of the Delta variant pushing the figure above 10,000 for the first time since late February.

The government on Monday announced it was delaying steps to lift restrictions due to concern over the spread of the new strain, first detected in India.

The government said a four-week delay would give it time to fully vaccinate millions more.

The death rate remains low, with 19 fatalities recorded today.

The vaccines are believed to be highly effective against preventing serious illness from the variant.

But there is concern whether rising case numbers will turn into death tolls similar to previous waves, which combined have seen 127,945 people lose their lives.

A government report published today found that cases are “rising exponentially” across England, driven by mostly unvaccinated age groups.

The data suggested cases were doubling every 11 days.

England’s Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty today said the current surge of the virus will “definitely” translate into hospital admissions and “undoubtedly” further deaths. 

Speaking at the NHS Confed Conference, Professor Whitty said he is anticipating that case rates will continue to go up in the next few weeks due to the Delta variant being “significantly more transmissible” than the Alpha variant.

He said there is currently a “further surge” of the virus, adding: “I think the height of that surge is still uncertain and we’ll have to see how this goes over the next several weeks.

“But that will definitely translate into further hospitalisations and, unfortunately, it will undoubtedly translate into further deaths.”

Professor Whitty said there was minimal flu last winter but warned it will be back this winter “unless the Covid situation is so bad that everybody has started to go back to essentially minimising their social contacts again”.

He told the NHS Confed Conference: “So, either we will have a very significant Covid surge, people will minimise their contacts and we will have less respiratory viruses, or people will be back to a more normal life, there will be some Covid but on top of that we will go back to having a flu surge, an RSV surge in children, and so on.

“I think we need to be aware of and brace for the fact that the coming winter may well be quite a difficult one.”

Includes reporting by Press Association and © AFP 2021