More than 1,000 Covid-19 deaths occurred each day for 14 days in a row in the UK in January, new figures show.

The death toll, based on mentions of Covid-19 on death certificates, reached 1,273 on January 16 – the highest number of deaths to take place on a single day in the second wave so far.

But the figures could rise even higher once all deaths have been registered for the second half of the month.

The provisional data has been published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

It shows that a total of 117,378 deaths had occurred in the UK by January 22, where coronavirus was mentioned on the death certificate.

For the 14 days from January 7 to 20, the daily death toll was above 1,000.

During the first wave of the virus in April 2020, there were 23 consecutive days when the death toll was above 1,000.

Deaths peaked during the first wave on April 8, when 1,457 deaths occurred.

The current second wave peak of 1,273 on January 16 is likely to increase as more deaths are registered, or it could be overtaken by another date – for example January 19, where the figure currently stands at 1,267 deaths.

The ONS data also shows that 27,400 deaths involving Covid-19 took place in the four weeks from Christmas Day (December 25 to January 21).

This is the highest number of deaths to occur in a four-week period since April 10 to May 7 2020.