UK announces zero daily COVID-19 deaths for first time since pandemic began

The United Kingdom on May 31 announced zero daily COVID-19 deaths for the first time since July last year. According to BBC, the official figures showed all four nations of the country recorded no new deaths within 28 days of a positive COVID-19 test and 3,165 new cases of the virus. This means that the official UK total number of deaths remains at 127,782, the first time the daily total didn’t rise since 30 July 2020. 

But it will still take some time before the officials know for sure if anybody died with COVID-19 on Monday. Reports of daily deaths are often lower at weekends and at the start of the week when authorities are off, and given the bank holiday, there could be more deaths announced later in the week that actually occurred on May 31. A day before, the official figures showed that 10 people had died within 28 days of positive COVID-19 death. 

It is worth noting that there has not been a day with no deaths recorded by date of death since March 11, 2020. Separate figures published by the Office for National Statistics show there have been 153,000 deaths registered in the UK where coronavirus was mentioned on the death certificate. UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the whole country would be "so glad" to hear the news. 

‘Vaccines clearly working’ 

Hancock said that the vaccines are clearly working and protecting everyone. However, he added that despite the good news, the country hasn’t beaten the virus yet and with cases continuing to rise he urged people to get the jab. Public Health England's medical director Dr Yvonne Doyle said the death figure was "encouraging", but echoed the health secretary's call for people to get a vaccine due to rising cases. 

Meanwhile, the announcement came as Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, paused plans to ease COVID-19 restrictions in much of the country, saying Scotland was still at a “delicate and fragile point” in the battle with the virus. In an announcement, she confirmed that restrictions in Glasgow, which had been the strictest in Scotland, would be relaxed, with the city moving to level 2 from Saturday. It worth noting that the latest figures show 25,734,719 people in the UK have had two jabs, while 39,477,158 - some 74.9% of the adult population - have received the first dose.

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