UK records another 7,434 new coronavirus cases, 290 deaths in 24 hours

Another 7,434 people in Britain have tested positive for Covid-19, bringing the total number of coronavirus cases in the country to 4,170,519, according to official figures released on Saturday.

The country also reported another 290 coronavirus-related deaths. The total number of coronavirus-related deaths in Britain now stands at 122,705. These figures only include the deaths of people who died within 28 days of their first positive test, the Xinhua news reported.

The latest figures were revealed as more than 19.6 million people in Britain have been given the first jab of the coronavirus vaccine.

The Britain's coronavirus reproduction number, also known as the R number, remains unchanged at between 0.6 and 0.9, the government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) announced Friday.

The figures mean that on average, every 10 people infected with coronavirus will infect between six and nine others. If the R number is above one, it means the coronavirus outbreak is growing exponentially.

According to SAGE, the infection growth rate is estimated to be between minus 6 percent to minus 2 percent, which means the number of new infections is shrinking by between 2 percent and 6 percent every day.

However, Deputy Chief Medical Officer for England Jonathan Van-Tam has urged the British public not to "wreck this now" as infections rates remain high in certain parts of Britain.

England is currently under the third national lockdown since outbreak of the pandemic in the country. Similar restriction measures are also in place in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

To bring life back to normal, countries such as Britain, China, Germany, Russia and the United States have been racing against time to roll out coronavirus vaccines.

--IANS

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