DAILY coronavirus deaths have hit an 11-month high today as cases plummet by 21 per cent in 24 hours.

Another 534 deaths within 28 days of a positive PCR test were recorded today, bringing the grim total to 157,409.

A further 88,085 cases were reported today, bringing the total number of Brits infected since the start of the pandemic to 17,515,199.

It's a drop from yesterday's 112,458 cases, as Brits get used to 'living with the virus'.

The large increase in deaths today is partly down to a 'change in metric' with government data.

Earlier this week an additional 588,114 cases were added to the Government dashboard earlier this week due to the inclusion of reinfections which had previously not been part of the tally.

The government has now also updated the deaths metric to match this.

It means that deaths by date of death have today been revised back to the beginning of the pandemic.

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The government said that historical deaths by report date have not been revised, so there is a step increase in the cumulative numbers of deaths from February 1.

It's also important to note that when Omicron hit in December, cases reached record levels.

There is a lag in infection, to hospitalisation and then deaths.

A string of studies have found that Omicron is a milder variant than the others that came before it, with most people catching the bug suffering with a cold-like illness.

Vaccines have been key at getting Brits out of the pandemic and everyone is encouraged to come forward for their jabs and boosters if they have not yet received them.

MASK UP

Face masks and coverings were a staple item through the darkest days of the pandemic and helped keep everyone safe.

They were paramount to the safety of NHS staff and patients.

But it has now been revealed that department of health bosses incurred £8.7billion in losses on PPE last year, a report has found.

Whitehall chiefs wrote-off the “staggering” sum because protective equipment could not be used or dropped in value.

A report on the department’s finances for 2020 to 2021 said rushed spending led to “significant losses for the taxpayer”.

Jo Maugham, of the Good Law Project, said: “It is just staggering how wasteful the Government’s PPE buying was.”

An audit found £4.7billion was lost because the department stockpiled PPE and paid more than it was worth by the end of the year when prices dropped.

Another £2.6billion was spent on PPE that was not good enough for the NHS or care homes. Gareth Davies, of the National Audit Office, said Covid put the Department of Health under extraordinary pressure and it failed to control spending in an “overheated global market”.

The DoH said: “The supply of these vital items helped keep our NHS open at a moment of national crisis to deliver a world-class service to the public.”

GET YOUR JAB

While PPE items helped the NHS, another study had now backed up the importance of vaccines – especially for the most vulnerable.

The experts said that breakthrough cases of Covid are on the rise with the highly transmissible Omicron variant.

"Therefore, it is important to know how vaccination impacts not only Covid-19 disease severity but also clinical data and medical imaging results", they said.

The purpose of the study had been to look at breakthrough infections (people who have been vaccinated and then are infected 14 days or more after receiving their jabs), in those who were fully vaccinated and partly vaccinated.

As part of the study the experts looked at 761 hospitalised patients with Covid-19, the mean age was 47 years, with 51 per cent being female.

They found that just 6.2 per cent of those in hospital with a breakthrough infection were fully vaccinated.

Just 17 per cent were partially vaccinated (one dose) and a 77 per cent were unvaccinated.

While rules put in place to protect us from Covid have now been removed in the UK, it's still important to take a test if you think you might be unwell.

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