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Health bosses have warned that as many as one in 50 people have got coronavirus - as figures show almost 100,000 in Kent have already been infected with the illness.
At a press conference this afternoon, England's chief medical officer, Prof Chris Whitty, said he expected the number of deaths from the disease to climb as it continues to spread.
Nationally, the number of new cases reported across the UK today breached 60,000 for the first time, while 830 deaths were reported by hospitals in the last 24 hours.
Prof Whitty said: "We have got to the situation now where roughly one in 50 have got the virus across the country.
"Across the whole of the UK, there has been a steady increase in the rates.
"There has been a very rapid increase in the number of hospital patients with Covid, and we are still in the middle of winter."
Boris Johnson revealed during the press conference that the Office for National Statistics has told ministers that more than 1 million people in England is now infected with Covid-19.
This comes as new figures show that the total number of cases in Kent stands at 97,956, up 2,544 on yesterday.
Prof Whitty added: "This new variant of the disease has been spreading across the whole of the country.
"We will inevitably see an increase in the number of people who die from this disease."
Mr Johnson also stressed that the NHS is hoping to offer vaccinations to everyone in the top four at-risk groups by February 15.
As of today, more than 1.3 million people in the UK have already received a dose of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Oxford-AstraZeneca jabs.
"That includes more than 650,000 people over 80, which is 23% of all the over 80s in England," the Prime Minister added.
"That means that one in four of one of the most vulnerable groups will have within two to three weeks a significant degree of immunity.
"[In order to meet our February target] we will have almost 1,000 vaccination sites across the country by the end of this week."
Prof Whitty's grim outlook, which included a warning that restrictions might be needed to protect against the virus next winter as well, came after last night's address to the nation by Mr Johnson, when he ordered the country to stay indoors and bowed to significant pressure to close schools and colleges.
Appearing on the BBC, his announcement of a third lockdown for England was watched by an average audience of 15.6 million people.
The move meant primary pupils in some part of Kent, including Canterbury, Thanet, Folkestone, Dover and Hythe, returned to school for just one day before being told to stay home again.
They, along with children in the rest of Kent and Medway, are now relying on home learning until at least the end of February half term.
And Mr Johnson said today: "Across this entire country, there are people making another huge sacrifice.
"I believe that when everybody looks at the position we are in, they understand we have no choice.
"We know there will be long weeks ahead in which we must persevere with these restrictions."
The Tory leader also committed to issuing a further update on the vaccine rollout on Thursday, before holding daily briefings from next Monday.
Today, senior cabinet minister Michael Gove said while restrictions will be reviewed on February 15 they will be "progressively" and not suddenly lifted.
When pressed for a time frame he told Sky News: "I think it's right to say that as we enter March we should be able to lift some of these restrictions, but not necessarily all."
