Britain’s daily Covid deaths quadruple in a week to 209

Britain’s daily Covid deaths more than quadrupled in a week today, official figures show — but the rise is likely due to a recording lag from the bank holiday last week.

Health chiefs have registered another 209 Covid fatalities in the past 24 hours compared to just 50 recorded last Tuesday.

But the number of fatalities recorded the same time seven days ago was unusually low after the public holiday because fewer people were available to process paperwork. On the previous two Tuesdays health officials registered another 173 and 170 deaths.

The Department of Health update revealed that 1,000 people were hospitalised with the virus across the UK on September 1, marking the second time there have been four-figure admissions in a week.

The update — which often includes backlogged hospital data due to the way it is recorded — showed there were a further 988 admissions on September 2 and 905 on September 3.

Covid infections have risen by 16 per cent in a week after another 37,489 cases were detected within the last 24 hours. 

It comes after the schools minister insisted that parents will ‘always’ be asked whether they consent to their children getting the Covid vaccine.

Nick Gibb today sought to reassure families amid reports that children as young as 12 will be able to overrule their parents as part of a secondary-school jabs rollout.

Professor Chris Whitty and the other chief medical officers are currently weighing up whether to offer jabs to 12 to 15-year-olds, after the Government’s vaccine advisers said the vaccines only offered a marginal benefit to their health.

Professor Whitty — who said over summer he would be in favour of jabbing kids to prevent more school closures — is expected to OK the move on Friday.