Covid-19: Highest UK deaths as Scotland extends lockdown - BBC News
A further 1,610 people die with Covid in the UK as Scotland extends its lockdown to mid-February.
Today's rising number of UK deaths was to be expected, sadly, after the surge in cases during December.

And it is likely that the coming weeks will see figures even higher than this.

Today’s numbers are, though, inflated by the fact that delays registering deaths over the weekend tend to lead to higher figures being reported on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

On average, the UK is recording more than 1,100 deaths a day.

To put that in context, at Christmas it was less than half that.

But there are two chinks of light in the daily update.

Firstly, the number of cases is below 40,000 - for a third day in a row. At the turn of the year it was touching 60,000 new diagnoses.

That means, in the coming weeks, we should start to see fewer hospitalisations and, eventually, deaths.

The number of vaccinations also continues to rise.

It seems unlikely the NHS will manage its target of two million doses a week just yet.

But each increase at least takes us one step closer to getting on top of the virus.