Covid: UK death toll increases by 610 as 30,004 new cases reported

A further 478,248 people have received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine meaning a total of 5,861,351 people have so far received the first jab, according to government data.

That's an average of about 67,934 new infections every day, or an average of one new infection every 1.2 seconds since January 21, 2020.

Concerns about newly identified variants have triggered a spate of new travel restrictions around the world.

France's Academy of Medicine says that the South African variant "could result from a viral replication more intense and prolonged in people living with HIV" - cases of which are highly prevalent there. He said it appears to be between 30 and 70 per cent more transmissible.

The new more infectious variant has already spread widely across the UK.

"I was actually quite surprised the news had been announced at a news conference".

'But in a way, for all of us, that doesn't matter.

One analysis did not find an increased risk of death among people admitted to a hospital with the new strain. "President Biden looks forward to working with leaders in both parties to position America to out-compete China."Hua, from the Chinese foreign ministry, responded on Friday by accusing the Trump administration of having imposed thousands of sanctions on China.She said Beijing's measures were "completely appropriate and necessary, fully demonstrating the Chinese government's firm determination to safeguard national interests"."We have long said that unilateral sanctions harm others and hurt oneself, and just like a boomerang, sooner or later it will fly back", she said."McCaul's comments fully expose how some U.S. politicians only allow the United States to engage in arbitrary suppression and do not allow others to justly defend themselves against bullying, hegemony and hegemonic logic".

In contrast to that uncertainty, he said, there is growing confidence that the variant is more easily passed on than the original coronavirus strain.

Mr Hancock played down the prospect of domestic lockdown being tightened even further - but struck a very negative tone on whether they were likely to be loosened, amid fears that the curbs could drag into the summer.

However, it is still a "long, long, long way" before coronavirus cases are low enough for the lockdown to be lifted, he told Sky News, adding that the National Health Service (NHS) remains under "enormous" strain.

'The NHS are doing an fantastic job in incredibly hard circumstances and so we, I am confident in the measures that we've got in place now.

The U.K. has recorded 95,981 deaths among people who tested positive for the coronavirus, the highest confirmed total in Europe.

Public Health England's Doctor Susan Hopkins also confirmed that coronavirus's new strain is more dominant in London and Southeast of England.