CORONAVIRUS daily death figures have fallen to their lowest in six weeks after 333 more people died. The lockdown and the jabs roll-out have forced cases down by a quarter in a week to 14,104. The positive tests recorded overnight are a dramatic plunge on yesterday’s figure of 15,845. Government officials said a further 333 […]
CORONAVIRUS daily death figures have fallen to their lowest in six weeks after 333 more people died.
The lockdown and the jabs roll-out have forced cases down by a quarter in a week to 14,104.
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The positive tests recorded overnight are a dramatic plunge on yesterday’s figure of 15,845.
Government officials said a further 333 people had died – down on yesterday’s 373 – within 28 days of testing positive as of Monday.
The last time the daily death toll was that low was on December 27 – six weeks ago.
Today’s figures mean daily deaths have dropped 18 per cent from 406 last Monday.
It means the UK’s death toll has risen to 112,798.
Separate figures published by the UK’s statistics agencies for deaths where Covid-19 has been mentioned on the death certificate show there have now been 130,000 deaths involving Covid-19 in the UK.
That figure includes additional data on deaths that have occurred in recent days.
The Government also said that, as of 9am on Monday, there had been a further 14,104 lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK.
It brings the total number of cases in the UK to 3,959,784.
During the April peak, the highest daily death toll recorded was 1,010.
So far in January and February, that tragic figure has been exceeded on 22 days.
But there are now tentative hopes the country is now getting past the darkest days of the crisis.
Government data up to February 7 shows that of the 12,806,587 jabs given in the UK so far, 12,294,006 were first doses – a rise of 278,988 on the previous day.
Some 512,581 were second doses, an increase of 862 on figures released the previous day.
The seven-day rolling average of first doses given in the UK is now 428,130.
Based on the latest figures, an average of 386,571 first doses of vaccine would be needed each day to meet the Government’s target of 15 million first doses by February 15.
It comes after Boris Johnson refused to rule out making lockdown longer if the South African variant continues to spread.
The Prime Minister today said vaccines are “remain of massive benefit to our country” but failed to dismiss extending the current restrictions.
Meanwhile, a top scientist also warned that lockdown could be extended as “it’s very possible” the mutated strain is already widespread in the UK.
Dr Mike Tildesley, an infectious disease expert at Warwick University, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme “surge testing” taking place in certain areas in England “really needs to be effective” to halt transmission.
But he warned that “sadly we may be in a similar situation to the Kent variant” which eventually spread across the whole of the UK.
