The figure for England is double the total of the previous week.

Some 840 people are described as being "seriously ill" in hospital with the illness - and 63 people are being treated in intensive care.

The death toll in the UK stands at 31, but that is likely to climb when the Department of Health releases its weekly update online later today.

The new figures come as the National Pandemic Flu Service opened across England, allowing people who think they have the H1N1 virus to bypass the NHS to obtain antiviral drugs.

The new phone hotline and website service use a checklist to diagnose cases and have been designed to relieve the pressure on the health service.

Visitors to the Government website are asked fill in a detailed questionnaire before being given a positive or negative swine flu diagnosis.

The website has already experienced "unprecedented demand" - with the system receiving 2,600 hits per second - or 9.3 million hits per hour.

Call centre staff manning the telephone hotline - 0800 1513 100 - will use the same checklist system.

If a caller is confirmed to have swine flu they will be given an authorisation number, which their designated "flu friend" can use to pick up antiviral drugs from the local collection point.

More than 2,000 staff have been recruited and given six-hour long training sessions before they start work.

They are not required to have any previous medical experience.

Some critics claim the "worried well" will abuse the DIY diagnosis to apply for medication unnecessarily.

Others fear swine flu symptoms could mask other serious illnesses, like meningitis.

Seventeen-year-old Gemma Drury, from Chesterfield, was diagnosed with the H1N1 virus by two separate doctors.

She was in fact suffering from meningitis and is now recovering in hospital.

Her father Kevin told Sky News: "If two doctors could get it wrong with Gemma, what hope would someone on the end of the phone with no medical training have?

"It's not the right way to make a diagnosis."

The Department of Health insists the service is simply a way for people to get access to Tamiflu and other antiviral drugs quickly.

Anyone displaying unusual symptoms will still be advised to contact a medical professional.