UK coronavirus death toll rises by 189

The UK’s official coronavirus death toll has risen by 189 – meaning 61,434 people have now died within 28 days of testing positive for the virus. 

A further 14,718 new cases were also reported on Monday, with the total number of identified infections nearing 1.75 million.

The seven-day average number of new cases saw a sharp decline from high of nearly 25,000 on 10 November, but has appeared to plateau at around the 14,000 mark over the past two weeks, according to Public Health England figures.

According to the most recent government statistics, there are 14,556 patients in hospital with coronavirus. Some 1,438 new patients were reported on Thursday, when the figure was calculated.

While much of the UK grapples with the prospect of tough restrictions throughout the winter months – with Welsh health minister Vaughan Gething refusing to rule out a third lockdown if necessary – the first doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine has now arrived in UK hospitals.

Fifty hospital hubs will start distributing the vaccine on Tuesday, with some 800,000 doses expected to be available within the first week, and up to five million doses in total hoped for by New Year.

“This is just so exciting. It's a momentous occasion,” Louise Coghlan, joint chief pharmacist at the Croydon University Hospital in south London, was quoted as saying upon her hospital receiving its first doses.

The first jabs are to be given to care home staff and residents, NHS frontline workers and the over-80s. But NHS chiefs have warned that most people should not expect to be vaccinated until 2021.

“I don’t think people should expect anything over the next few days” said NHS Providers chief executive Chris Hopson, “because the reality is, as I said, that for the vast, vast, vast majority of people this will be done in January, February, March.

Mr Hopson said people need to “hang fire” and be assured they have not been forgotten if they have not received a letter or a phone call about the jab, adding: “The one thing that we don’t want people to get anxious about or concerned about is ‘Where’s my letter?’ in December.”

Downing Street suggested the “majority” of the 25 million people covered by the 10 priority categories set out by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) will be vaccinated by the end of February.

There are hopes that regulatory approval of the Oxford and Moderna vaccines could bolster UK stocks, as talk turned this morning to whether disruption from a no-deal Brexit may impact supply.

Junior foreign office minister James Cleverly said that vaccines are “absolutely the priority product” and suggested that the military could be drafted in to airlift doses from the continent if necessary.