The UK has reported another 40 coronavirus-related deaths and another 2,678 cases.

This compares with the 18 deaths and 2,729 Covid cases recorded yesterday.

The latest figures also show the UK has now administered 33,388,637 first doses of a coronavirus vaccine, up from the first dose total of 33,257,651 recorded yesterday.

Some 562,056 vaccinations were administered yesterday, with more than 11.6 million people having had two jabs.

The total number of shots given now sits at 45,012,308.

The total number of people who have died within 28 days of testing positive for the coronavirus in the UK now stands at 127,385.

And 4,401,109 cases have now been diagnosed since the start of the pandemic.

Earlier it was revealed that the R number in England had risen slightly to between 0.8 and 1.

R represents the average number of people a person with the virus goes on to infect. When the figure is above 1, an outbreak can grow exponentially - but it is shrinking if it is below 1.

It comes as India was added to the UK's travel red list as of Friday morning.

A total of 55 new infections with the coronavirus variant first identified in the country - which has a double mutation on its spike protein - have been identified.