MORE than 1,000 people have tested positive for Covid-19 in the last 24 hours across the UK, the largest rise in a single day since June 25.

The 1,062 new cases comes amid growing concerns that the sustained fall in the number of cases seen in the UK over the last three months has started to plateau and may even be rising again.

It is a significant rise on the 758 new cases reported on Saturday across the UK. Of the new cases, 26 were in Wales and 48 in Scotland.

A former chief scientific advisor to the UK government has warned that a national lockdown may be inevitable as soon as next month unless something changes.

The figures released by the UK government show that there were ten more deaths with Covid-19 reported in the last 24 hours, all of which were in England.

The patients were aged between 45 and 89 and all had known underlying health conditions.

The highest number of new hospital deaths were recorded in Birmingham, which saw a total of four deaths.

There were three deaths in the North East & Yorkshire, two in the East of England and one in London.

It comes as beaches across England and Wales were packed on Saturday and busy again on Sunday.

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A total of 58 new coronavirus cases were confirmed in Ireland on Sunday bringing the overall number of infections to 26,712.

Additionally no further deaths have been reported as the death toll stands at 1,772.

There are 29 cities on the government's list of places it is monitoring in England that could face a local lockdown.

A total of 29 local authorities, including Bedford and Luton, are on the list, with labels ranging from "concern" to "intervention".

Of the authorities highlighted, Preston in Lancashire is the latest city to reintroduce some rules.

Residents are banned from mixing with people outside their social bubble in homes, gardens and indoor venues such as pubs.

These are similar to the rules also imposed on Greater Manchester, Blackburn and parts of West Yorkshire, with fines of £100 in place for those who don't follow them.

Leicester is the only city in the UK to be locked down completely so far, with pubs, restaurants and non-essential businesses remaining closed on July 4.

It was only yesterday that pubs in the area could reopen.