UK's daily COVID-19 death toll falls to 17, a six-month low

FILE PHOTO: Medical workers move a patient between ambulances outside of the Royal London Hospital amid the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, London, Britain, January 27, 2021. REUTERS/Toby Melville

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 highest number of deaths in the world from COVID at 126,172. 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. Just over 367,000 first doses were given out in the last 24 hours, down from the record 752,308 given the day before.

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