COVID-19: Today’s Zero Death Milestone Matches Downward Trend, But Releasing Lockdown Will Be Political Decision | UK News

This is a milestone in the pandemic: no deaths reported by the government in daily statistics for the first time since March 2020.

More than 127,000 people in the UK have lost their lives due to coronavirus until now.

But daily deaths have gone from their high of nearly 1,400 in mid-January to single lows for much of the past fortnight.

And while the long bank holiday weekend may well have resulted in a delay in reporting some deaths, the big zero today corresponds to the general downward trend.

The long spring lock did much of the early work.

But as the vaccine reached more vulnerable people over the age of 50, it was the roll-out that was crucial in our slow exit from the COVID nightmare.

Almost 40 million people have now received their first dose; over 25 million had their second. No other great nation has protected a greater proportion of its population.

But now that we’ve celebrated, here’s the reality check.

These statistics represent the spread of COVID-19[female[feminine a month ago – it takes about four weeks for some people to first need hospital treatment and then die.

By early May, COVID cases were reaching a low – less than 2,000 per day.

But the combination of the lifting of the lockdown and the Indian variant has led to an increase in infections.

They are now consistently above 3,000 new cases a day and some scientists have warned that we are at the start of a third wave.

This translated into a slight increase in hospital admissions, largely confined to a few hot spots.

So the question is: what happens next?

The deployment of the vaccine is far from over. A quarter of the population still hasn’t had a single hit, half haven’t gotten the much better protection of two yet.

So there are still many people to be infected with the virus, and models from scientists at the government SAGE (Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies) committee suggest that there will indeed be another wave of cases.

But the dead are …