Views: Visits 15 A nurse swabs the nose of a patient as he administers a COVID-19 test in Ljubljana on December 22, 2020, as nation wide mass free rapid testing for the novel coronavirus Covid-19 starts. Jure Makovec / AFP Eye of the storm The United Kingdom registers a record 53,135 new coronavirus cases in 24 hours, as the government comes under pressure to introduce tighter restrictions, including delaying the return to school. Health chiefs warn that England is “back in the eye” of the coronavirus storm, with as many patients in the hospital as during the initial peak in April, and the new strain of the virus appearing to be behind the recent upsurge in cases.