| December 31, 2021   The number of Covid-19 patients in hospitals is expected to keep rising for 10 days before admissions hit their peak, NHS bosses have warned as they told medics to prepare for the worst.
With the latest data showing 2,082 hospital admissions on 28 December – the highest since February – and another record rise in infections on Thursday, NHS chiefs and clinicians are concerned the spread on wards could lead to mass outbreaks among patients and staff.
Meanwhile, there are fears that new year celebrations on Friday night could see a further spike in the number of cases amid a shortage of rapid tests. On Thursday Sajid Javid admitted in a letter to MPs that lateral flow supplies would continue to be "constrained" for two weeks.
The health secretary's warning came as the number of Covid-positive patients in hospital jumped by 1,000 for a second day running, reaching a total of 11,452 on Thursday.
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The Big Question  What are the 14 impacts of Brexit from this year? Britain left the EU at the end of January 2020, but it was only at the start of 2021 that things started to change.
Up until that point the UK had been in a transition period – with all EU rules still applying. The country has now been cut loose from Brussels for a whole year: here are some of the effects Brexit has had.
The end of free movement has made it harder for seasonal agricultural labourers to visit the UK, so many have cut it out of their schedule. British residents have shown little interest in doing the piecework, so thousands of tonnes of crops rotted in fields during the UK's picking season this year.
Tory MP Roger Gale, who represents the community of Thanet, told the prime minister directly that one grower in his constituency had had to trash hundreds of thousands of pounds-worth of produce.
NUMBER OF THE DAY 4 million The Welsh government has come to the aid of Westminster by loaning England four million lateral flow tests, as ministers scramble to secure supplies from around the world.
QUOTE OF THE DAY "What is the government doing? What are people doing? Are we going to normalise this monster behaviour?" " – Hawa Haragakizam, talking about action that must be taken after her 15-year-old son Tamim was stabbed to death in south London last summer on his way home from school.
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