The United Kingdom on Thursday reported 1325 new deaths from coronavirus, which was the highest daily death toll yet.
Why it matters: The massive increase in deaths is fueled in part by a highly transmissible COVID-19 variant that is spreading rapidly across the UK and threatening to overwhelm hospital systems.
Between the lines: The figure is even worse on a per capita basis than the record of 4,000 COVID-19 deaths reported in the US within 24 hours. declare a “major incident” due to the virus that infected 1 in 30 Londoners.
The whole picture: The United Kingdom, which has been fully locked up for at least the next six weeks, was the first country in the world to approve and administer the Pfizer vaccine as well as the Oxford-Astrazeneca vaccine.
- Earlier Friday, British regulators cleared the Modern emergency vaccine.
- The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) notes that although the new coronavirus variant is more transmissible, there is “no evidence to suggest that the variant has an impact on the severity of the disease or the efficacy of the vaccine. “