Covid-19: January deadliest month for UK
Health care workers transport a patient at the Royal London Hospital, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in London, Britain, January 26. PHOTO: AFP/File
January has been the deadliest month for the UK in its fight against the coronavirus as new statistics reveal that on average every day more than 1,000 people have died.
Saturday marks the one-year anniversary of when the country recorded its first death caused by the virus, with the overall death toll passing 100,000 this week.
Data released by the Office of National Statistics showed that between Jan. 1 and 28, 1,006 deaths a day had been recorded with the number rising to 1,200 on Saturday, bringing the total deaths of this month to 29,371.
The death toll in the UK has crossed 120,000.
Despite the grim statistics, the overall spread of the virus in the UK is slowing down.
On Saturday, 23,275 people tested positive for the virus. Between Jan. 24 and 30, 178,630 people had a confirmed positive test result. This represents a 31.3% decrease compared to the previous week.
The same week, 8,242 deaths were reported, 28 days after they tested positive. This represents a weekly fall of 5.7% in fatalities.
Slowing down
The slowing down of the pandemic in the UK can be attributed to the increasing rate of the number of vaccines being administered to the general public.
As of Friday, 8.378 million people had been vaccinated with a first dose and 480,432 people with a second dose.
Also until Friday, the latest R range for the UK is 0.7 to 1.1 with the current growth rate being -5% to 0% per day. The R number is a mechanism used to rate the virus’s ability to spread, with R being the number of people that one infected person will pass the virus on to.
The government has introduced new travel restrictions for those returning from 30 countries. Travelers entering the UK from these countries will have to undergo a mandatory quarantine for 10 days in a government-provided accommodation.
UK nationals and residents looking to travel abroad must provide a written declaration as to why they want to travel abroad for a reason other than a holiday.
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