Another 532 people have died with coronavirus across the UK in the country’s highest daily death toll in five months.

Figures released by the Department of Health on Tuesday mark the first time more than 500 daily deaths have been recorded since mid-May and bring the total death toll to 49,770.

The new daily figure is a big jump from the 194 deaths reported yesterday, although numbers are often lower on Mondays due to delays in reporting over the weekend.

The country has also recorded a further 20,412 cases in the past 24 hours – down from 21,350 cases on Monday.

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Deaths and cases have been on the rise as the winter approaches, although hope was restored for many yesterday when pharmaceutical company Pfizer has announced its vaccine candidate appeared to be more than 90% effective.

Matt Hancock confirmed on Tuesday that mass Covid-19 testing will be rolled out across 66 local authorities following a trial in Liverpool.

The plans are part of the Government ‘Operation Moonshoot’ which aims to bring the country out of the second lockdown by identifying more cases of the virus and getting people to self-isolate. 

Students in England could also be given tests from the end of the month in order to go home for Christmas safely.

According to a letter from the universities minister to vice chancellors, a mass testing programme has been proposed between November 30 and December 6.

The text results would come back ‘within an hour’ and students who test positive would be required to self-isolate.

More than 782,000 people have now lost their jobs since the first national lockdown, figures released on Tuesday revealed.

More people were made redundant between July and September than at any point on record, according to the new Office for National Statistics study.

Around 314,000 redundancies were registered during the three months, up by 181,000 from the quarter before.

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