More than 10,000 cases of coronavirus have been recorded in a single week in Norfolk for the first time.

The latest figures show 10,278 lab-confirmed positives across the county for the seven-day period ending on December 27.

It also marks a new record of 1,903 cases in one day.

New records for cases in one day were also seen in every local authority in Norfolk including 350 in Norwich, 347 in Broadland, 329 in South Norfolk and 282 in King's Lynn & West Norfolk.

Great Yarmouth recorded 209 new cases and North Norfolk 157.

The Department of Health figures are based on the number of people who have tested positive for Covid-19 in a lab-reported test, plus positive rapid lateral flow tests that do not have a negative confirmatory lab-based PCR test within 72 hours.

The overall case rate in Norfolk is now 1,124.5 per 100,000 people.

It comes as Covid hospital admissions in England have risen to their highest level since January 2021 while the number of NHS hospital staff absent due to the virus nearly doubled in a month, new figures show.

Data from NHS England, published on Friday, show there were 2,370 Covid-19 hospital admissions in England on December 29, up 90pc week-on-week and the highest number since January 29.

The Norfolk and Norwich Hospital had 21 patients admitted for Covid with three in ventilation beds while the James Paget in Gorleston had 16 patients with one on ventilation.

Twenty eight patients had been admitted at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King’s Lynn where two remained on ventilation.

Health secretary Sajid Javid said the record-breaking Omicron wave of infection will "test the limits of finite NHS capacity even more than a typical winter" as reports suggested a work from home order in England could be in place for most of January to slow the spread of the highly transmissible variant.

He said: "Curbs on our freedom must be an absolute last resort and the British people rightly expect us to do everything in our power to avert them.

"So I've been determined that we must give ourselves the best chance of living alongside the virus and avoiding strict measures in the future."

The restrictions brought in last month are set to expire six weeks after implementation, with a review after three weeks, which is expected on or close to Tuesday, January 4.

Nationally there have been a further 162,572 lab-confirmed Covid-19 cases as of 9am on Saturday, the government said, a new record for daily reported cases in England.

A further 154 people had died in England within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19.

Separate figures published by the Office for National Statistics show there have now been 174,000 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.