Covid: Another 981 UK deaths in biggest daily toll for eight months
Almost 1,000 people died in the UK from Covid yesterday in what is the largest one-day total since the first peak of the virus.
The government’s latest figures show that 981 people died on Tuesday, which takes the total to 72,548.
The number was a large jump from the previous day, with a likely backlog of deaths shown in the data.
There were also another 50,023 cases of coronavirus in the UK yesterday, the majority of which were the new mutant strain that spreads at a much faster rate.
Deputy chief medical officer Jonathan Van-Tam said today that case rates had doubled in the UK over the past two weeks.
It comes as three-quarters of England was today put into a Tier 4 lockdown by health secretary Matt Hancock.
Boris Johnson said at today’s 5pm press conference that the country needed to “redouble our efforts to contain the virus”.
“That’s why the health secretary has announced more areas of England will be moving into Tier 4 from tomorrow and I say again – no one regrets these measures more bitterly than I do, but we must take firm action now,” he said.
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Speaking to MPs today, Hancock said: “Unfortunately this new variant is spreading across most of England and cases are doubling fast.
“The NHS is under very significant pressure, there are over 21,000 people in hospital with coronavirus right now and we can see the impact that this is having.
“The threat to life from this virus is real and the pressures on the NHS are real too.”
English Covid rates rose to 402.6 per 100,000 between 18 and 24 December – a 32 per cent increase on the previous week.
Hospitalisations have also risen by 18 per cent in the same period.
The UK’s medicines regulator today announced it had approved the AstraZeneca/Oxford University vaccine, making it the second jab to be deemed safe.
Government ministers have indicated that the news could mean the end of England’s lockdowns in the next few months.
Millions of doses of the vaccine have already been produced and will be rolled out from Monday across the UK, significantly increasing the country’s capacity to administer jabs.
AstraZeneca boss Pascal Soriot said as many as 2m vaccines could be manufactured each week.
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“The vaccine is our way out of this,” Hancock told the BBC.
“Whereas previously I’ve I hoped we’d be out of this by spring, I now have a high degree of confidence we’ll be out of this by spring.”