It comes as government sources confirmed tonight that there is concern about the new variant of covert 19 amid fears it could be making the virus more infectious.

Onda harder to contain Today.

The prime minister said he was hoping to avoid a third national locked down in England, but acknowledged that rates of infection had increased very much over recent weeks.

New data suggests the U.

K's are number or reproduction rate of coronavirus is on the rise again.

Last week, it was thought to be between North 0.9 and one.

It's now estimated to be between 1.1 and 1.2.

Anything above one means that the virus is growing.

Here's our health editor.

Shoot him.

Routine operations were going ahead at this hospital in the south of England today, but increasingly, NHS managers across the system are having to consider postponements.

Mork over patients air coming in and it's a challenge to find enough beds, and that's causing problems in a and E as well we're now at a really dangerous point where we could tip into finding it incredibly difficult to manage.

Now we've got crowded departments with co vered as the additional burden, which is a really scary and challenging place to be on.

You can see this as we're increasingly getting ambulances queueing outside departments.

One co vid patient at this hospital has made a plea for families to think very hard before traveling at Christmas.

He thinks his teenage son may have unwittingly passed on the virus.

If you saw the look on my son's face when I was fighting for right, you will not want to send these Children.

Although the country to see their family prime minister on a visit to the Northwest did not rule out the possibility of England following Northern Ireland on Wales into a post Christmas locked down.

Obviously, we're hoping very much that will be able to avoid anything like that.

But the reality is that the rates of infection have increased very much in the last a few weeks.

Here where I am in the northwest, in in Bolton.

They've actually done a fantastic job in bringing it down on the data shows that case numbers air rising in most but not all, parts of the UK The latest survey of community infections by the Office for National Statistics suggests that in England, one in 95 people have the virus.

Last week, with an increase in case rates, notably in London, the southeast, the east on the East Midlands, there were declines in other areas in Wales, with one in 90 on Scotland with one in 100.

There were also increases in Northern Ireland.

One in 215 had the virus, with case rates no longer decreasing.

Inevitably, some of those infected will become seriously ill and need hospital treatment on That's what's putting pressure on the NHS frontline.

There have been warnings today about the impact on staff people from the first, I just still very traumatized and fatigued, Um, not only from physical tiredness, but from the psychological impact of dealing with covert and working in very different ways to usual.

Now we're looking down the barrel of what looks like a third wave.

Eso, you know, we're very concerned on the impact of five days of Christmas is something we're very concerned about, as well.

Many hospitals across the Southeast are under increasing strain.

NHS leaders in Kent say they'll cancel some non urgent operations because of the increase in co vid patient numbers on Daz in other areas, they need to be ready for a possible surge into the new year on, we'll have more from who in a moment.

But first, the latest government figures on coronavirus show another rise in infections.

There were 28,507 new cases in the latest 24 hour period.

The average number of new cases reported per day in the last week is 23,959.

The number of people being admitted to hospital is rising to 1707 on average each day.

Between now and last Sunday, 489 deaths were reported for the last 24 hours four hours and that's people who died within 28 days off a positive covert 19 test.

On average, in the past week, there were 434 deaths per day.

The total number of UK deaths is now 66,000 541.

Well, Hugh is here now tell us more about the concerns that we're learning about tonight.

That air surrounding this new variant of Cove in 19.

Well, Sophie, we learned on Monday about this new variant Hancock Health Century for England, announcing it in the House of Commons and saying it might be a factor in the speed of transmission of the virus, particularly in the southeast off England, that it wasn't clear up that stage.

Now what's emerged tonight is that there are still concerns about it, possibly growing concerns about whether it's a factor in how fast the virus is spreading.

So it has to be said that scientists, public health England are still looking at the science behind it to know whether it really is a matter of concern or just another mutation which should be expected.

But clearly there are worries about the state of the NHS in all parts of the UK In the southeast of England's, we've been hearing some hospitals postponing routine work, now the same in South Wales.

One health board announcing it was stopping some non urgent work and crucially, moving staff into the front line to deal with covert patients in these hospitals Now you get this sort of thing sometimes in January, in the winter, when you've got a cold snap and you've got flu, things have to be postponed because of frontline pressures.

But it's very unusual to get it at this stage in the middle of December, when there isn't any flu or cold weather.

So the worry is what happens after Christmas with more mixing of households.

MAWR cases on a lot more pressure into January Just when the NHS is most busy, keep him thank you.