LONDON (Reuters) – The United Kingdom’s daily death toll from COVID-19 fell to 17 on Monday, the lowest figure in about six months, official data showed.
Figures showed 17 people had died within 28 days of having received a positive test for the disease, and that deaths in the last seven days were down 42% on the week before.
While deaths have dropped sharply in recent weeks, daily new cases have remained steady at around 5,000 to 6,000 this month. The data showed 5,342 new cases were recorded on Monday. The seven-day figure was down 4.7%.
Britain has the fifth worst death rate in the world at 126,155 but a fast start to the vaccine rollout has helped it recover from an aggressive second wave of the pandemic.
The official data showed 28 million people had received their first dose, well over half the population, and 2.3 million had received their second.
(Reporting by Kate Holton, editing by Estelle Shirbon and Michael Holden)
