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Johnson said last week that the spread of a new variant of the coronavirus meant that there would be difficult times ahead, and ministers said more may be needed.
The increase in positive cases was also partially driven by the Northern Ireland report of 1,634 new cases, with no cases reported on Sunday or Friday due to the Christmas vacation period.
It is not clear whether the increase in cases in England by almost 11,000 was partly a result of fluctuations in test numbers over the holiday weekend, as data on the number of people tested have not been published since Wednesday.
Britain has substantially increased testing capacity since the first wave of COVID-19 in the spring, from around 100,000 tests daily in late May to 500,000 tests on December 23, the last date on which data on the number of tests performed have been published.