Covid cases in the UK have risen for the third day in a row - and increased by seven per cent on a week ago.
Government figures show that 31,808 infections were recorded across the nation in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of infections since the pandemic began to more than six million.
A further 92 deaths were also registered.
The number of cases is an increase on seven days ago, when 29,622 were recorded.
Infections had fallen for six days in a row up to Tuesday of this week, according to Public Health England data.
But they have since increased on every day - topping 30,000 for the first time since last month on Thursday.
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The latest data comes as the first coronavirus jabs are were offered to healthy 16-year-olds in a UK nation.
Walk-ins became open to older teenagers in Northern Ireland from Friday, just two days after it was announced the vaccine rollout was being extended to 16 and 17-year-olds.
Pfizer doses are available at regional vaccination centres and pop-up walk-in clinics.
Stormont Health Minister Robin Swann said he had asked his officials to ensure the new recommendation, issued on Wednesday from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), was implemented "as quickly as possible".
The extension of the rollout means all of the UK's 1.4 million 16 and 17-year-olds will now be eligible to get a first dose.
And the jab move also comes as the latest estimates show infection levels have fallen in all nations apart from Northern Ireland.
In its snapshot of the level of infection for the week to July 31, the Office for National Statistics survey showed that while the estimated number of people in England testing positive for Covid-19 has dropped for the first time since the end of May, in Northern Ireland infection is at its highest level since since the week to January 23.
In Wales, around one in 230 people are estimated to have had Covid-19 in the week to July 31 - down from one in 160 in the previous week.
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For Scotland, the ONS estimates that around one in 120 people had Covid-19, down from one in 110 in the previous week.
Currently, uptake of first vaccine doses among 18 to 29-year-olds in the UK is highest in Wales, at 75 per cent.
This is followed by 72.8 per cent in the same age category in Scotland, 69.3 per cent in England, and 63.9 per cent in Northern Ireland.
Mr Drakeford said this is down to an approach of encouragement rather than one that "threatens" or offers prizes.
Young people in England have been told they will not get into nightclubs from next month unless they are double jabbed, while there are also discounted taxi journeys and meals being used as incentives for people to get vaccinated.
Meanwhile Public Health England has said there are "initial findings" from research indicating that levels of virus in people with the Delta variant - which is dominant in the UK and first identified in India - may be similar to levels found in unvaccinated people.
PHE said this could have implications for people's infectiousness, whether they have been vaccinated or not, but that more research is needed.