Posted: 2021-06-14 19:02:11

COVID-19 death rates have fallen dramatically in the last few weeks, with just three people registered on Monday as having died after testing positive in the last month.

At the peak of the pandemic, the number of people in hospital reached 38,000; hospitalisations on Monday were 1089 across the whole of the UK, which has a population of 66 million.

London’s famous West End theatres remain closed.

London’s famous West End theatres remain closed.Credit:Getty Images

The proportion of the adult population fully vaccinated reached 56.9 per cent on Monday, while 79 per cent of adults had received a first dose, which Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty said reflected take-up rates, particularly in London, that “many countries would dream of having at this point in time.”

The delay in allowing mass events and nightclubs to reopen coincided with new data from Public Health England showing the vaccines were highly effective against the Delta variant.

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The data shows the Pfizer vaccine is 96 per cent effective against hospitalisation and AstraZeneca is 92 per cent effective – but only after two doses.

Sir Patrick Vallance, England’s Chief Scientific Adviser, said Britain was no longer facing a future of more lockdowns, but was now locked in a race against the virus outbreak.

“The vaccines we’ve got are spectacularly more effective than we ever dared hope – they really are very good,” he said.

“We’re in a race against the virus and the vaccines need to get ahead of it and if you’re in a race with somebody you don’t suddenly assist them in putting the afterburners on so they can outpace you.”

The opposition’s health spokesman Jonathan Ashworth said the delay was a direct result of the Prime Minister’s delay in requiring hotel quarantine for arrivals from India.

“This was predicted and sadly predictable,” he said.

“Boris Johnson left borders as secure as a sieve allowing this dangerous variant to reach our shores.”

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