London, Jan 12 (FN Agency) The UK registered 46,169 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, this is the first day of 2021 when the daily number of infections fell below the 50,000 mark. 529 COVID-19 deaths were also registered during the past 24 hours. This takes the UK’s cumulative case tally to 3,118,518 cases with 81,960 deaths, the highest in Europe in both metrics.
The death toll exceeds the predictions made during the start of the pandemic, government advisers had said that the country can expect anywhere between 20,000 and 80,000 deaths. A national lockdown has been in place in England since last week, already the third in a row and as strict as the first. Authorities have not ruled out extending the lockdown through late March.