Britain has recorded more than 72,500 confirmed coronavirus deaths, the second-highest death toll in Europe after Italy and the sixth-highest worldwide. The country reported a record number of new confirmed cases on Tuesday, more than 53,000, and 50,023 on Wednesday. The U.K. also reported Wednesday that another 981 people with the coronavirus had died. It was the highest daily number of deaths reported since April, although it followed a lag in reporting over the Christmas holidays. Hancock said Wednesday’s authorization of a second vaccine for use in the U.K. was good news, but “sharply rising cases and the hospitalizations that follow demonstrate the need to act where the virus is spreading.”He told lawmakers in the House of Commons that the medicines regulator's approval of the vaccine made by British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and Oxford University "brings forward the day on which we can lift the restrictions,”“But…we must act to suppress the virus now, especially as the new variant makes the time between now and then even more difficult.”

Source: Daily Sun December 30, 2020 18:22 UTC