Nearly 50,000 new cases of COVID-19 have been recorded in the UK in one day — but the death rate is holding steady.
The Public Health England (PHE) daily update on Monday showed 49,156 new cases reported that day. That brought the total number of cases in the past seven days to over 309,000 — an average of 44,145 per day — up 16.2 percent on the previous week
The PHE site's headline figure for deaths from the virus in the past seven days had increased 11.4 percent to an average of 124 per day.
But when listed by the actual date of death rather than when they were reported, the number of fatalities was falling gradually, and averaged just over 100 per day.
The daily death toll peaked at 1,359 on 19 January during the second wave of the pandemic, when case numbers were roughly the same as now. Since then most precautionary restrictions have been relaxed — despite warnings from opposition parties and some academics.
A total of 915 COVID-positive patients were admitted to hospitals around the country on 12 October, the latest day for which full data was published, showing a steady rise. As of 15 October there were 7,097 infected people in hospital, although only 791 of those were ill enough to be put on a ventilator.
The number of coronavirus tests carried out was holding steady at just under one million per day since the start of October, unlike in September, when the number of tests, cases, hospitalisations, and deaths rose and then fell in sync with each other.
Over 49 million people in the UK have now been vaccinated, out of a total population 0f 67 million, with the jabs recently approved for children aged 12 to 15. Uptake among over-65s, the most vulnerable age group, is around 95 percent.
The total death toll since the first case was recorded in the UK in January 2020 is now 138,629, with almost 8.5 million confirmed cases in that time.
The response to the pandemic by Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government was criticised in a recent report by Parliament's Science and Technology Committee.