THE UK has reported coronavirus 31,795 cases today – down 41.8% on last Saturday’s 54,674.
It is the fourth day in a row that cases have fallen – but Public Health England have not yet revealed how many deaths have occurred because of “technical difficulties”
Yesterday, a further 36,389 cases were diagnosed overnight – a drop of almost a third from the 51,870 reported last Friday.
And a further 64 new deaths were reported, giving a total of 129,044 lives lost since the start of the pandemic.
The seven-day average for daily Covid infections earlier this week was 46,024, with 711 hospital admissions, 567 patients on ventilators and 42 deaths.
But during the winter wave, when infections were at a similar level of 46,231 on January 17, the seven-day average for deaths was 1,119 – 27 times higher than now.
And there were 37,561 Covid patients in hospitals – nine times as many.
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Meanwhile, new data has revealed that vaccines have reduced waves of Covid deaths to mere ripples.
Hospital patients are, on average, younger, less poorly and able to leave the wards faster than in previous waves, analysis shows.
They’re also less likely to end up in hospital in the first place, need a ventilator, or die from the deadly virus.
It comes as holidaymakers faced travel chaos today after being forced to queue for hours at Heathrow Airport.
Passengers returning from amber list countries were left frustrated after many missed their pre-booked taxi or coaches due to the delays on the airport’s busiest day of the year.
Travellers also said they had to wait for up to three hours after the e-gates broke down, slowing down the process even more.
Additionally, there are no London Underground trains from Heathrow terminals over the weekend due to engineering works which meant a number of passengers had to take a replacement bus service to Hammersmith.
