Britain’s daily Covid deaths almost halve in a week to 95 as cases drop by 7% to 6,303

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Britain’s daily coronavirus deaths have almost halved in a week, official figures revealed, as a catalogue of data showed cases are still falling across England and dropped in every region except Yorkshire last week. 

Department of Health statistics showed 95 Covid fatalities were recorded today, which was a 47 per cent dip from the 181 people that succumbed to the disease last Thursday.

And daily infections fell by seven per cent week-on-week after health chiefs announced a further 6,303 cases had been identified. For comparison, 6,753 were registered at the same time last week.

Over the last few days the drop in infection rates appears to have slowed, but experts say this is linked to a doubling in the number of tests carried out because schools have reopened. The positivity rate – one of the best ways of tracking an outbreak’s size when swabbing jumps- still fell in all regions, suggesting the second wave is firmly in retreat. 

It came as Public Health England data showed only Yorkshire saw its infection rate plateau last week, while a third of local authorities saw a rise in their infection rates. 

And separate data from Test and Trace showed they had 39,118 positive cases transferred in the week ending March 10, the latest available, which was a drop of 14 per cent on the previous week. But this only covers three days of school testing, meaning the true effect of the surge in swabs will not be fully reflected in the figures.

Department of Health figures on the vaccines roll-out today showed 25.7million Britons have now received their first dose, after a further 462,246 got their shots today. Ministers also dished out another 119,609 second doses as they approach the deadline for starting to administer the shots en masse.  

Matt Hancock today finally admitted a delayed shipment from India is behind a Covid vaccine shortage that will hit the UK in April and lead to first doses being all but halted for under-50s. The UK was expecting another 4million doses of the Oxford-made vaccine from the Serum Institute of India, the world’s biggest vaccine manufacturer, but the shipment has been held back.

The European Union’s medicines regulator also sought to put out fears over the AstraZeneca jab today, after it said the shot was ‘safe and effective’ and that the benefits outweigh any possible risks after a review. This was despite 19 member states including France, Italy and Germany hitting the pause button on their drives amid unproven fears over blood clots. 

The UK’s medicines regulator said today there was no evidence that the Covid vaccine triggers blood clots and only five people in Britain have developed them out of 11million doses administered.

In other Covid news:

• EU leaders are forced into humiliating climbdown after Europe’s medical regulator confirms the AstraZeneca jab is NOT linked to blood clots;
• Matt Hancock warns EU chief Ursula von der Leyen there will be ‘very significant consequences’ if she bans jab exports to Britain from the bloc;
• Top holiday company warns summer trips to Spain, Italy and Greece are in doubt over Europe’s floundering roll-out;
• Britain’s roll-out is at risk of slowing down after it emerged a delivery of 4million AstraZeneca doses from India has been delayed by four weeks;
• Microbiologist Dr Simon Clarke warned this may delay lockdown-easing plans and stop millions of under-50s from going on holiday this summer;
• Oxford and Pfizer’s vaccines are more effective against Brazilian variant than first feared, says study. 

Department of Health data showed 35 local authorities in the country are now recording fewer than 20 Covid cases per 100,000 residents.

These were mostly based in the South West of England, although there were also regions in Scotland, Wales, and Norfolk.

Corby, in Northamptonshire, has the highest Covid infection rate in the country at 181.4 per 100,000.

It is followed by Hull, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, had the second-highest rate at 174.4 per 100,000. And Barnsley, in South Yorkshire, had the third-highest rate at 167.3 per 100,000.

Separate data from Public Health England also shows Yorkshire was the only region in the UK nation to see its infection rate rise last week.

It also has the highest infection rate, at 107.9 per 100,000, out of the nine regions. Its neighbour the North East has the second-highest rate, at 76.3 per 100,000, and the East Midlands has the third-highest rate, at 76.1 per 100,000.  

The lowest infection rate was in the South West (30.3 per 100,000), followed by the South East (34.7 per 100,000) and London (36.9 per 100,000).

But the test positivity rate declined in all regions even as Covid swabbing doubled because of the return of schools. The Government has said all pupils and teachers must test themselves for the virus twice a week in order to avoid further outbreaks. Ministers hope the policy should also root out asymptomatic infections – where someone has the virus but suffers no symptoms.

The South West and the South East have the lowest positivity rate (0.3 per cent), followed by the East of England and London (0.4 per cent) and the West Midlands (0.6 per cent).

The North West and the East Midlands had the fourth-lowest rate (0.7 per cent), and the North East had the fifth-lowest rate (0.7 per cent).

Yorkshire and the Humber had the highest test positivity rate in England (1.1 per cent).

In terms of local authorities, the Isle of Wight recorded the highest spike in infections in the country when the rate spiked by 121 per cent to 21.9 per 100,000.

But this was still a very low rate overall – linked to 30 cases. It is thought these may have been thrown up by testing in schools, with local newspaper the County Press reporting new cases have been detected at several schools on the island.

It was followed by Solihull, outside Birmingham, where they leapt by 57 per cent to 85.5 per 100,000, and Southampton where they jumped by 56 per cent to 91.4 per 100,000. 

NHS Test and Trace data show the number of contacts of people who tested positive for coronavirus identified by the contact-tracing system fell to 88,430, continuing the downward trend.

Overall, 81 per cent of contacts were reached by call handlers and told to self-isolate, with Thurrock in Essex seeing the most contacts successfully reached (90 per cent).

Only 13 areas of the country saw more than 88 per cent of contacts reached, all of which were in the South East or London.

They were: Essex, Sutton in London (both 89 per cent), Barking, Bexley, Bromley, Burton in London and Bracknell in Berkshire, Central Bedfordshire, East Sussex, Medway in Kent and Milton Keynes (all 88 per cent).

Areas in the North fared worse, with six areas having less than 70 per cent of contacts successfully told to move into self-isolation.

Bradford in Yorkshire and Oldham in Greater Manchester had the least, with just 67 per cent of contacts reached by call handlers. 

They were followed by Newcastle (68 per cent) and Blackburn in Lancashire, Manchester and Nottingham (all 69 per cent).

Health Secretary Matt Hancock told last night’s Downing Street press conference that deaths were ‘falling so fast’ because of the highly-successful vaccines.

Pointing to new Public Health England’s analysis of the real-world impact of the jabs, he added: ‘After a single dose of either vaccine, protection against Covid-19 is around 60 per cent, that’s protection against getting it, protection against hospitalisation is around 80 per cent and protection against death is around 85 per cent.’  

DOH data also showed another 433,320 first doses of the vaccine were administered today, bringing the total number of Britons with at least one dose of the vaccine to 25.2million. 

Mr Hancock said he was ‘delighted’ that the UK had crossed the milestone in exactly 100 days after the launch of the mammoth operation. The NHS is now officially inviting all over-50s for their jab.