ALMOST 9million people have tested positive for Covid in Britain since the pandemic began.
Another 43,467 infections were recorded today along with 186 more deaths.
It means 8,979,236 people have recorded a positive Covid test result since the Covid outbreak.
A total of 140,392 people have died within 28 days of a positive test result in Britain overall.
Almost 50million people have had their first doses of the Covid vaccine while 445,651,222 have received their second jab.
More than 7million have received their booster jabs as the government ramps up their top-up campaign.
It comes as the official coronavirus R rate could be as high as 1.4 in some areas of England as one in 50 people are now infected with the virus, data revealed today.
It's the second week in a row that the R rate has risen and it now sits between 1.1 and 1.3 in England.
Last week it was at 1.0-1.2 and on October 15 it sat between 0.9 and 1.1.
Levels are believed to be as high as 1.4 in the South East and are lowest in London, the Midlands, the North East and Yorkshire and the North West, where it sits between 1.0 and 1.2.
In the East of England, R sits between 1.1 and 1.3 and government experts have warned that care should be taken when interpreting R estimates.
Rates for the South West have been excluded this week as the government continues to understand the impact of the negative PCR tests blunder that saw over 40,000 people have false negatives.
The UK Health Security Agency said it is 'confident that R is above 1 in the South West and that the epidemic is growing in this region'.
More to follow…
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