UK virus fatalities highest since March

(AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

The United Kingdom has reported 146 new deaths within 28 days of a positive COVID-19 test, the highest daily total since March 12, as the impact of last month’s surge in cases feeds through into fatalities, government data shows.

The number of new cases reported on Tuesday fell to 23,510 from 25,161 on Monday – less than half the peak of 54,674 recorded on July 17, shortly before most distancing measures were removed in England.

But coronavirus cases have begun to creep up again, with 196,047 people infected with COVID-19 in the past week, 7 per cent more than the week before and the highest rolling seven-day total this month.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government went ahead with easing COVID-19 restrictions in England due to the broad roll-out of vaccinations which he said had largely broken the link between infections and subsequent hospitalisation and death.

Three quarters of UK adults have now received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine and 89 per cent have received at least one.

The UK has suffered 130,503 deaths within 28 days of a positive COVID-19 test, the second-highest total in Europe after Russia and one of the highest in the world.

(AAP)

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