unless effective action is taken. katya adler, bbc news, brussels. let's get the latest figures on the pandemic here in the uk. in the past 2a hours, there have been nearly 115,000 new infections recorded — that's just over 5,000 more than this time last week. on average, there were nearly 42,000 new cases reported per day over the past week. 45 deaths were recorded — that's of people who died within 28 days of a positive covid—19 test. and on average in the past week, 147 related deaths were recorded every day. and on the vaccination front, 15.3 million people have now had their booster injection. the first minister of scotland, nicola sturgeon, and the leader of the scottish conservatives, douglas ross, have been on a joint visit to a drugs recovery group, in what they call a "united effort to tackle scotland's growing drugs problem." the most recent figures show a record number of drug—related deaths in scotland for the seventh