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COVID-BRITAIN-RISE
Covid cases continue to rise in UK amid India-related variant concerns
LONDON, May 28, 2021 (BSS/XINHUA) – Another 3,542 people in Britain have tested positive for COVID-19 as the daily number of coronavirus cases continued to rise in Britain amid India-related variant concerns, according to official figures released Thursday.
The latest number is up from 3,180 cases recorded Wednesday, which was the highest since mid-April. The total number of coronavirus cases in the country now stands at 4,473,677.
The country also reported another 10 coronavirus-related deaths, bringing the total number of coronavirus-related deaths in Britain to 127,758. These figures only include the deaths of people who died within 28 days of their first positive test.
Earlier Thursday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said there’s nothing “in the data” to suggest the final step of the roadmap exiting the lockdown can’t go ahead on June 21.
“As I have said many times I don’t see anything currently in the data to suggest that we have to deviate from the roadmap, but we may need to wait,” he said during a visit to a hospital.
“Don’t forget the important point about the intervals between the steps of the roadmap, we put that five weeks between those steps to give us time to see what effect the unlockings are having,” he said.
From May 17, pubs, bars and restaurants in England were permitted to open indoors, while indoor entertainment resumed, including cinemas, museums and children’s play areas.
People were also allowed to travel abroad to a number of green-list countries without having to quarantine upon return as the ban on foreign travel has also been lifted.
The British government’s roadmap is expected to see all legal limits on social contact to be removed on June 21.
More than 38.6 million people, or more than 70 percent of adults in Britain, have been given the first jab of the coronavirus vaccine, according to the latest official figures.
Experts have warned that coronavirus may continue to evolve for years to come, and eventually it is likely current vaccines will fail to protect against transmission, infection, or even against disease caused by newer variants.
To bring life back to normal, countries such as Britain, China, Russia, the United States as well as the European Union have been racing against time to roll out coronavirus vaccines.
BSS/XINHUA/MMA/1212HRS