Add to that grim figure a record number of new cases.

More than 68,000 positive tests were recorded in the past 24 hours hospitals across the UK and now under severe pressure, with some treating many more patients than they did during the first peak in April.

London and the south east of England are currently being hit the hardest, with one senior NHS leader saying the situation is off the scale, calling it a winter crisis like no other, he has ever seen his our health editor, keep him two brothers enjoying a swim on a foreign holiday.

Exactly a year later, one of them died with Kovar, 19.

He was a big chap.

There's no denying that, but he could swim all day long.

You know who's running on Christmas Day?

James remembers his brother, David, who was 36.

They both tested positive and were isolating.

But David's condition worsened overnight and he didn't survive.

We were going to sit there and rough it out, but it didn't work for us on my advice would be not gonna scare among the people.

And I don't want to be dramatic, but I think people, if you're in that situation, if you're sat at home and you're starting to really struggle for breath ring from 11 a postmortem will try to establish whether there were other factors in David's death.

As more lives are lost in case numbers increase, London's mayor has declared a major incident with a call for financial support from the government.

Hospitals Air So busy that ambulances a delayed handing over patience with waiting times up 36% in the Southeast in December, according to data leaked to BBC News Co.

VID patient numbers arising in other regions Extra staff have been drafted into this intensive care unit in Wolverhampton, including dental specialists.

I didn't really think about how hard it would bay even patient roles to end of life.

It's somebody's loved one on this Nottinghamshire Hospital says.

The pressure is intensifying way.

We're beginning to see that huge increase that London has seen, so we've got 100 and 60 patients covert, an organization that's nearly double the number that we saw in the first wave.

Critical care is exceptionally busy on the colleagues who work here retired, They're fatigued and they're worn out.

The latest survey of community infections by the Office for National Statistics suggests that last week in Northern Ireland, one in 200 people had the virus, with case rates no longer decreasing.

In Scotland, it was one in 115 with case numbers on the increase.

In Wales, one in 70 the case rates were coming down in England.

One in 50 had the virus, with case numbers on the increase.

The worst affected area was London, with one in 30.

The latest.

Our number range 1 to 1.4 was higher than the previous estimate.

Anything above one suggests the virus is accelerating.

Vaccinations continue, though there was a long queue and waits in the cold for people in priority groups invited to this clinic for their jobs.

It was confirmed that a third vaccine has been approved by regulators.

It's made by the US company Madonna on the government's ordered 17 million doses, though they're unlikely to be available before the spring.

Right now, senior health officials have focused on the spread of the virus.

They're worried there are more people out and about than during the first lock down.

And they think there could be more than 100,000 new infections per day, including those who haven't been tested.

Hugh Pym BBC News Well, let's look at the latest government figures in detail.

There were 68,000 and 53 new coronavirus cases recorded in the latest 24 hour period.

The average number of new cases reported per day in the last week is now 59,344.

Hospital admissions Keep climbing on average, there were 28,756 cove in 19 patients in hospital in the last week.

On today's record death toll, 1325 deaths.

That's people who died within 28 days of a positive co vid 19 test.

It means on average, In the past week, 809 deaths were announced every day.

It takes the total number of deaths so far across the UK to 79,833 on medical edge.

To focus, Wash is with me now they're truly terrible figures, and the awful thing is that is going to get worse.

It will.

Sophie.

There are now 31,000 co vid patients in hospital across the UK That's up 50% since Christmas Day and 10,000 higher than at the peak in April.

And coronavirus cases are surging.

That has yet to show up in the hospital data because of the lag between infection on people falling seriously ill.

So the number of deaths seems certain to keep on rising.

Now I've seen firsthand this week the pressures in intensive care, the stress on hospitals and on staff is greater than at any time during this pandemic.

But there is hope.

A third covert vaccine approved today.

The modern A job is 95% effective against Kobe Disease, the immunization program with the Oxford and Pfizer jazz.

We ramped up from Monday, but more than two million people a week will need to be immunized if the target of 50 million being offered the job is to be reached by mid February.

So difficult weeks ahead.

The numbers in hospital won't start to fall unless people behave like they did during the first lock down Sophie, keeping their distance from others and washing their hands on tonight, the prime minister said.

He urged.

He said compliance is now Mawr vital than ever.

And he urged people to stay at home and protect the NHS.

I guess Thank you Well, for those who are most sick, those whose lungs have not been helped by a ventilator, there is another alternative.

It's called ECMO, their specialist intensive care life support machines, which pump oxygen into the patient's blood, allowing the lungs to rest.

There are only six NHS centers in the U.

K that offer the treatment to a few dozen patients, but now they're under pressure to take on more.

Ah, health correspondent Sophie Hutchinson has been given rare access to an ECMO unit at the Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge, the sickest patients we've ever seen, even for patients on ECMO, everybody body patients are very poorly on in bigger numbers, and we've ever had um, these are among the very sickest patients with co vid 19 in the country.

On this ward is their last hope, their lungs air so damaged by the disease that even ventilators haven't helped and they've come here for the rarest form of life.

Support from a machine known as ECMO.

ECMO stands for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.

It allows thes patients to breathe without using their lungs, giving their lungs a vital rest so that they can recover.

And you can see here you got black blood coming out on red blood full of oxygen going back in the patient.

This ECMO center was set up following the swine flu outbreak in 2000 and nine, but the coronavirus pandemic is now stretching it almost to the limit.

Normally on this, would they have three patients on ECMO.

But because of the pandemic and the damage that Cove in 19 does to the lungs, they have many mawr.

In fact, each of these rooms has a patient on ECMO.

In it, they say they have 18 patients here today, and they've described it as a super surge.

I know there is a limit that we will reach.

I have no idea when that limit will be there.

By continuing, extending extending there will be a cracking point speaking kind of help and as well as treating patients, staff are working around the clock fielding calls from other hospitals.

There are a maximum of around 100 ECMO beds in the UK, but there have been 3000 requests for patient referrals.

It is relentless, so patient after patient after patient, they take a long time to get better.

That the sickest patients we've ever seen, even for patients on ECMO?

No, they're not old patients there, a younger cohort.

And so it is.

It is really, really difficult.

We are allowed, at times, finding it quite overwhelming.

Is everybody ready?

Yeah, yeah, Girl already.

Study.

Some patients are in their twenties and thirties.

Most are older.

They have to be strong enough to withstand ECMO on the work.

Looking after them is grueling.

It's very difficult.

It's very difficult.

Things are very intense.

The patients are very poorly poorly of them.

Then we probably ever seen them on bigger numbers and we've ever had them.

Eso It's a lot to deal with.

We haven't got the staffing numbers to cope with the amount of patients that we have, but we're doing what we can for the patients that we have with the time that we have towards the end of our filming.

Another two patients arrived on the ward staff are proud that everyone who meets the criteria for ECMO has so far been offered a bed here.

But this extra pressure was hard toe handle were not as resilient this time as we were last time because we've really had no downtime, so to speak.

But we still do it because that's what we do on what they're doing is saving lives through their dedication and determination.

Perhaps more than half of these patients will eventually awake and go home to their loved ones.