The UK is in in for a "pretty grim" period of Covid-19 deaths, the Government's top scientist has warned. His stark warning came as the daily reported death toll reached an all time high.
Chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance said "we're in a period of high death numbers" which will not "reduce quickly".
Speaking to ITV's Peston programme, Sir Patrick said: "The daily numbers jump around a bit but I think we are in a position now - when you look at the number of infections we've had over the past few weeks and how this is likely to continue, so I don't think they're going to drop very quickly - that I'm afraid we're in a period of high death numbers that's going to carry on for some weeks. "It's not going to come down quickly even