UK records lowest daily death toll since October

Another 52 people have died after testing positive for Covid-19 in the lowest daily tally in five months, the latest Government figures show.

Since the start of the pandemic, 125,516 have died with the virus in the UK. The tally rises to 143,259 when taking into account all fatalities that listed Covid-19 on the death certificate.

Today marks the lowest daily increase in deaths since October 12 when 50 fatalities were reported.

A further 4,618 lab-confirmed positive test results were returned in the last 24 hours, according to the Department of Health. A total of 4,258,438 people have tested positive since the start of the UK’s outbreak.

Data up to March 13 shows that of the 25,781,120 Covid-19 vaccinations given in the UK so far, 24,196,211 were first doses, while 1,584,909 were second doses.

The latest figures come after the UK’s medicines regulator said there was no evidence that the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine causes blood clots.

Ireland’s deputy chief medical officer (CMO) today said the use of the jab should be temporarily suspended, after regulators were notified of a small number of reports of blood clots associated with the jab.

‘However, it has not received any reports of the nature of those described by the Norwegian Medicines Agency,’ said the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) which ordered an urgent review.

Several other European countries temporarily suspended AstraZeneca jabs, as Norway recorded four new reports of serious blood clotting after the vaccines were administered.

Ireland’s CMO Dr Ronan Glynn said: ‘It has not been concluded that there is any link between the Covid-19 vaccine AstraZeneca and these cases.

‘However, acting on the precautionary principle, and pending receipt of further information, the National Immunisation Advisory Committee (NIAC) has recommended the temporary deferral of the Covid-19 vaccine AstraZeneca vaccination programme in Ireland.’

The UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) today said it was ‘aware of the action in Ireland’ but moved to reassure the public that the jab is safe.

‘We are closely reviewing reports but, given the large number of doses administered and the frequency at which blood clots can occur naturally, the evidence available does not suggest the vaccine is the cause,’ added the MHRA.

Meanwhile, Professor Sir Ian Diamond, head of the Office for National Statistics (ONS), said he was ‘very, very confident’ the vaccine rollout is starting to take effect.

However, he said there is a lot of regional variation in terms of how many people have antibodies, with 30% of Londoners developing them compared to 16% in the South West.

Sir Ian told the BBC Andrew Marr Show: ‘This has been an incredibly impressive vaccine rollout, and we’ve been looking at antibodies in the population, and we’ve been scaling up our survey in order to be able to take many more blood tests so that we can look at the impact.

‘And what we’re seeing is quite remarkable increases in the level of antibodies in the over-80s, and increasingly in the over-70s. So I’m very, very confident that the vaccine rollout is really starting to provide some real protection.

‘At the other side we see very relatively high levels amongst young people which just shows how much of young people have been affected by the virus.’

Despite the vaccine’s success, he said there is ‘no doubt’ there will be another wave of infections in autumn.

His comments come after Professor Chris Whitty said there were risks to reopening society and that the UK will experience another surge at some point – potentially in late summer or in autumn and winter.

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