Britain reports 174 Covid deaths, highest since March 12

Britain recorded 174 COVID deaths on Tuesday, the highest since March 12, and another 30,838 new cases, official data showed.

With 88% of the adult population receiving a first vaccine and 77% receiving both doses, Britain lifted nearly all its restrictions in mid-July, allowing people to socialise, travel and return to work in offices.

While many people are still wearing masks and working from home, daily infection rates have started to rise. Daily case numbers in the last seven days are up 13.5% on the week before.

On Monday, there were 31,914 new infections reported and 40 deaths.

Britain has now reported 705 deaths in the last week, up 8.8%. Death rates refer to those people who have died after testing positive for COVID-19 in the last 28 days.

While the daily figures are rising – and Tuesday’s numbers are often high due to delays in reporting fatalities at the weekend – they remain well below the more than 1,000 deaths reported a day at the peaks of the pandemic.