Eighteen new Covid cases confirmed in past 24 hours in Milton Keynes

This brings the total number of new cases since Friday to 63.

But part of the sudden surge over the weekend may due to a technical "issue" which saw some cases from the previous week go unrecorded nationally.

A government spokesman said: "An issue was identified overnight on Friday 2 October in the automated process that transfers positive cases data to PHE (Public Health England). It has now been resolved.

"The cases by publish date for October 3 and 4 include 15,841 additional cases with specimen dates between 25 September and 2 October. They are therefore artificially high for England and the UK.

On Friday the total number of cases for MK since the beginning of the pandemic was 1,178. Yesterday (Sunday) it stood at 1,223 and today it is 1,241.

Nationally the number of people testing positive over the past 24 hours rose to 12,594 today.

Throughout the UK there have been 19 deaths, bringing the total death toll to 42,369.