According to the latest official data released, there were 445 deaths linked to covid-19, less than the 613 reported the previous day. The number of new contagions has remained above 50 thousand for five consecutive days.
The total number of infections in the United Kingdom since the beginning of this health crisis now stands at 2,599,789 and the death toll is 74,570.
Experts consider that these alarming levels of cases are due to the appearance of a new, more contagious variant of the virus, which has led to increased restrictions to the maximum level in much of the territory.
The serious situation threatens to overcrowd hospitals, experts warn, at a time when secondary schools, universities and many primary schools are delaying their return to school until January 18, when the Christmas break was expected to end on Monday.
The chairman of the British Medical Association, Andrew Goddard, warned today in statements to the BBC that Christmas and the new variant of the coronavirus will have “a big impact” in the coming weeks in the spread of the virus in the United Kingdom.
From Monday, the United Kingdom will be able to count on two vaccines to face the health crisis, after the vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca, which joins that of Pfizer / BioNTech, was approved by regulators last week.
The covid-19 pandemic caused at least 1,827,565 deaths resulting from more than 83.9 million cases of infection worldwide, according to a report made by the French agency AFP.
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