UPDATE: Bedford records more than 160 cases in 24 hours

As of today (January 8), Bedford has recorded 163 new cases of coronavirus, with a total of 8,194 people now diagnosed with the deadly virus, according to the latest figures from Public Health England.

There was one death in Bedford (267), nine deaths in Luton (305) and three deaths in Central Bedfordshire (354).

On Monday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced England would go into a third lockdown to help reduce the spread of the virus which is now being driven by a new mutation.

Central Bedfordshire has 281 new Covid cases with a total of 10,047, while Luton recorded 334 with a new total of 12,276.

Meanwhile, Buckinghamshire now has 19,990 cases of Covid, Hertfordshire has 50,207 and Milton Keynes has 13,036 cases.

The new figures are recorded between 5pm the previous day to 5pm and unfortunately don't include the number of patients who have recovered from Covid-19.

Nationally, the number of coronavirus cases has risen by 68,053 and now stands at 2,957,472. The number of deaths has risen by 1,325 to 79,833.

The figures come from the Government website which is available for the public to view here