The UK has reported a further 146,390 new coronavirus infections and 313 deaths, as one expert labelled the Omicron situation in the north of England “particularly concerning”.

       It is the third time in the past 10 days that more than 300 fatalities have been reported. That number of people have not died in a single day since late February, according to official figures.

       This means that 150,057 people have now died in the UK within 28 days of testing positive for the virus – although the number of people whose death certificates mention Covid-19 now sits at 174,000.

       According to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), more than 1.22 million people have tested positive for the virus since Sunday – a rise of 10.6 per cent on the previous week. The number of cases reported on Saturday is the lowest in 11 days.

       As of Thursday, there were 18,454 people in hospital with coronavirus – up from 14,126 a week prior on New Year’s Eve. Some 868 of those in hospital on Thursday – or 4.7 per cent – required mechanical ventilation to help them breathe.

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       “What we are seeing from hospital admissions is that stays in hospital do appear to be on average shorter, which is good news,” Dr Mike Tildesley, of the University of Warwick, said on Saturday. “Symptoms appear to be a little bit milder, so this is what we are seeing consistently with the Omicron variant.”

       Dr Tildesley, who sits on the Sage modelling subgroup SPI-M, suggested that infection rates in London appear to be slowing down, but said that scientists will need two weeks to see if this continues, following the return of schools and many people to the workplace.

       Suggesting that “most other parts of the country are about two to three weeks behind where London is in their epidemic profile”, he told Times Radio on Saturday: “Particularly concerning is the north east and the north west [of England].

       “If you look at hospital admissions in those two regions they are going up, also the Midlands, where I live, that's also a little bit concerning, so it is a worry.”

       His comments came in a week when at least 24 NHS trusts have declared critical incidents, including one in Northamptonshire on Friday afternoon, with the latest figures showing a 59 per cent rise in staff absences in just seven days.

       On Saturday, The Independent reported accusation that NHS leaders have been downplaying the impact of the crisis and putting hospitals under scrutiny for declaring critical incidents and postponing surgeries.

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       A leaked internal email from NHS England, interpreted by sources as a “thinly veiled threat”, urged hospitals to use the “correct terminology” and make NHS leaders aware when declaring their status.

       Daisy Cooper, the Lib Dem Health spokesperson, said: “We must trust health chiefs when they say a situation is critical. Every NHS patient and health worker can see for themselves that this is a health service struggling under the full weight of the Omicron wave. They need support, not suspicion.”