Britain could be heading for second lockdown as covid cases keep rising

University students in Nottingham on a Freshers night out as the England-wide 10pm pub curfew took effect.

The latest 24-hour figures for the UK show that there have been 34 Covid-19 related deaths There has been another record daily rise in people testing positive of 6,874.

The UK’s “R” or reproduction number has risen to between 1.2 and 1.5. The R number shows the average number of people each person with Covid goes on to infect and when it’s over the number one, the virus can spread at an exponential rate.

Latest figures from the Office for National Statistics show that in the week ending on September the 19th more than 100,000 people had the virus in England.

The highest infection rates were in Yorkshire and the Humber, the North West, North East and London. The most-affected group were people aged between 17 and 24.