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Ella Wills

Coronavirus cases in the UK have risen above 30,000 for first time since January, official figures show.

Wednesday’s data showed there had been a further 32,548 confirmed Covid cases.

And there were another 33 deaths reported within 28 days of a positive Covid test.

It comes as Boris Johnson has defended the government’s approach to easing England’s lockdown, saying the link between infection and serious disease and death has been “severed”.

The prime minister has pledged to scrap most of England’s coronavirus regulations at step four of the roadmap out of lockdown, expected on 19 July.

It means the government is now braced for a surge in coronavirus cases, possibly around 100,000 a day, as restrictions are lifted.

Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions, Mr Johnson said it was “certainly true” there was a “wave of cases because of the Delta variant” of the virus.

“But scientists are also absolutely clear that we have severed the link between infection and serious disease and death,” he said.

“Currently there are only a 30th of the deaths that we were seeing at an equivalent position in previous waves of this pandemic.”

However, on Monday the government’s chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance was more cautious, saying vaccines had “weakened the link between cases and hospitalisations, but it’s a weakened link, not a completely broken link”.

Wednesday’s daily figure for Covid cases in the UK is above 30,000 for the first time since 24 January.

In terms of hospitalisations, England is seeing more than 330 admissions a day on average at the moment. The most recent day – Monday – saw 416 admitted.

As of Wednesday, 2,144 people are in hospital in England with Covid – the first time this figure has topped 2,000 since April. – BBC NEWS