There was another 189, 213 lab-confirmed Covid-19 cases recorded in the UK on Thursday, the Government said, another new record for daily reported cases.

The Government said a further 332 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19.

The total includes reported figures for Wales covering a two-day period.

In comparison on Wednesday, the UK reported a record daily total of 183,037 Covid cases and a further 57 deaths were recorded.

The figure includes a backlog of hospital deaths reported by NHS England covering the period of December 24-29.

Separate figures published by the Office for National Statistics show there have now been 174,000 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.

Earlier today, it was confirmed that 19,544 cases of the Omicron variant have been reported across the UK. Confirmed Omicron cases in the UK now total 229,666.

There were 11,898 Covid-19 patients in UK hospitals as of 8am on December 29, Government figures show.

This is the highest number of patients since March 2, when there were 12,139 in hospital.

This is up 44% week-on-week, when the figure on December 22 stood at 8,254 patients.

The second-wave peak was 39,254 on January 18.

The Government figures also show there were 1,152 Covid-19 hospital admissions in the UK on December 24.

This is up 34% week-on-week.

During the second wave of coronavirus, UK admissions peaked at 4,583 on January 12.

Meanwhile, a total of 51,738,013 first doses of Covid-19 vaccine had been delivered in the UK by December 29, Government figures show.

This is a rise of 32,607 on the previous day.

Some 47,368,074 second doses have been delivered, an increase of 43,766.

A combined total of 33,527,184 booster and third doses have also been given, a day-on-day rise of 435,293.

Separate totals for booster and third doses are not yet available.