CORONAVIRUS deaths have dropped by nearly a third in a week – with another 98 fatalities recorded.
Cases have remained stable with another 5,605 reported today, taking the total to 4,312,908.
Read our coronavirus live blog for the latest news & updates…
The rise in fatalities brings the total number since the beginning of the pandemic to 126,382.
Today’s increase in cases is down slightly on the 5,758 reported last Wednesday – and also below the 5,926 infections recorded on March 10.
Fatalities have also decreased from the 141 reported last Wednesday. They are far below the 190 deaths seen a fortnight ago.
It comes as:
Separate figures showed a further 69 deaths in English hospitals, bringing the total to 85,890.
Patients were aged between 37 and 97 and all except four – aged between 55 and 84 – had known underlying health conditions.
Meanwhile, Wales reported three coronavirus deaths while Scotland also recorded a further three fatalities.
No deaths were recorded in Northern Ireland, health authorities confirmed.
Elsewhere, a total of 325,650 Brits received their first dose of the coronavirus vaccine yesterday, meaning an incredible 28,653,523 have received their first shot.
And 169,155 got their second dose, bringing the total to 2,532,839.
The figures come as Professor Neil Ferguson today assured Brits that the lockdown roadmap was on track despite a third wave of infections across Europe.
Many countries across the continent have been plunged back into lockdown amid a sluggish vaccine rollout and the spread of highly transmissible new Covid variants.
On keeping to the road map, he said the UK has a “very good chance of both being able to relax measures and not needing to tighten up”.
He said the surge in Europe has “already happened to us and we’re through to the other side”.
However, Prof Ferguson, from Imperial College London, did say he is concerned about that the South African variant.
He told BBC Breakfast: “But the real concern is things like the South African variant, where the vaccination programme we’re currently using, whilst it would still give some protection against that (variant), the protection would be reduced.”
