More than 100,000 people have now died with coronavirus in the UK, after official Government figures showed another 1,631 deaths on Tuesday. 

A further 20,089 cases of Covid-19 were also reported in the latest 24 hour period – the lowest in six weeks – as the daily infection rate continued to slow. 

The latest grim milestone comes after the ONS confirmed that its count of Covid-linked deaths had passed 100,000 on Tuesday morning. A separate count using data from birth certificates suggested the figure had actually been reached weeks ago, with the same measure standing at more than 115,000 today.

Official government figures now show that 100,162 people have died within 28 days of testing positive since the pandemic began – and some 3,689,746 infections have been confirmed. 

Today is the second highest daily death toll recorded in the UK, after 1,820 people were confirmed dead on January 20. Wednesdays tend to have the highest tallies, meaning tomorrow’s figure could be higher still.

Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter, the Chair of the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication at Cambridge University, explained: ‘There will be a lot of attention given to deaths with Covid reaching 100,000, but this is based on the figures released each day, which only include people who both had a positive test and then died within 28 days.

‘The more accurate ONS data show that over 100,000 people in the UK had already died with Covid on their death certificate by January 7th, nearly 3 weeks ago.

‘This rose to 108,000 by January 15th, and the total now will be nearly 120,000.’

He continued: ‘Around 90% of these had Covid as the immediate cause of death, and so perhaps we can say that around 100,000 people in the UK have now died because of Covid. An awful total.’

However, experts will be somewhat relieved that the infection rate has dropped to its lowest level since December 15, when 18,450 cases were recorded.

Meanwhile, reports continue to suggest that quarantine hotels are set to be brought in to stop new variants arriving from abroad. 

Earlier today, NHS England said that a further 875 people who tested positive had died in the nation’s hospitals, bringing the total number of confirmed fatalities in the setting to 67,921.

Patients were aged between 33 and 101. All except 21, aged between 52 and 93, had known underlying health conditions.

The deaths were between December 17 and January 25, with the majority being on or after January 16.

There were 34 other deaths reported with no positive Covid-19 test result.

Wales reported a further 570 cases of coronavirus, taking the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 189,152.

Public Health Wales also reported another eight deaths, bringing the toll since the start of the pandemic to 4,561.

In Scotland, 87 further deaths were confirmed today, according to latest figures.

There were also 1,049 new cases of people who had tested positive reported on Tuesday.

It brings the respective totals there to 174,002 cases and 5,796 deaths.

Northern Ireland saw a further 16 people die after testing positive, bringing the total to 1,763.

The Department of Health also confirmed another 550 positive cases of the virus on Tuesday, meaning 101,291 people are confirmed to have been infected since the pandemic began.

Elsewhere, dozens of police officers were fined for getting haircuts at a station, while a Tory MP came under fire for getting a ‘leftover’ vaccine despite only being 40 years old. 

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