CORONAVIRUS cases have risen by 16,298, bringing the total in the UK to 1,690,432.
Deaths rose by 504 as a 15-year-old with no underlying health conditions was confirmed to have died from the bug.
Today’s rise in fatalities brings the total to 60,113.
The figure is higher than the 16,022 cases reported last Friday, but lower than the 20,252 recorded a fortnight ago.
Fatalities are slightly lower than the 521 deaths seen a week ago, and just below the 510 fatalities recorded on November 20.
It comes after separate figures showed a further 274 fatalities were recorded in English hospitals, bringing the total to 41,879.
A fifteen-year old with no underlying health conditions was one of the victims – just a day after a “healthy” 19-year-old was killed by the bug.
The North East & Yorkshire saw the highest number of hospital deaths at 77, while the East of England had the lowest toll with 12 deaths.
It comes as:
- Londoners have been warned that the capital could be plunged into Tier 3 before Christmas.
- Millions of Brits could have to wait for a Covid jab as Pfizer halved its initial round of deliveries.
- The official coronavirus ‘R’ rate could be as low as 0.8 as the epidemic ‘shrinks again’.
- New figures show that three areas of England currently facing tier 2 restrictions are now among the worst hit by Covid.
Fehzan Jamil, from Bradford, become one of the UK’s youngest coronavirus victims last month when he passed away at the age of just 10.
The boy had a number of underlying health issues and despite the efforts of his family to shield him from Covid-19, he contracted the virus and died in hospital.
It is worth noting that the number of younger patients with no underlying health conditions dying from coronavirus remains low.
Trending In The News reported last month that 95% of coronavirus victims had underlying health conditions.
Out of the tragic 37,796 deaths in NHS England hospitals up to November 20, 35,806 had underlying conditions.
According to an analysis of ONS data by The Times, the average age of coronavirus victims is 82.
Underlying conditions that put patients at serious risk of complications include asthma, cancer, cystic fibrosis and diabetes.
It comes as new data today revealed that coronavirus cases fell across England by a third in the week before the lockdown ended.
And infections have almost halved since the “peak” of the second wave in October, data from studies tracking the size of the outbreak show.
The Office for National Statistics said around 25,700 people were catching the coronavirus every day in the week to November 29, a few days before the lockdown ended on December 2.
It means daily new cases dropped by a third (33 per cent) in a fortnight, from 38,900 in the week to November 14.
Tim Spector OBE, lead scientist on the app and Professor of Genetic Epidemiology at King’s College London, said: “It’s encouraging to see rates are still falling across most of the UK, and we’re now below 21,000 cases, less than half the peak of the second wave we saw in October.
“However, while we are also seeing steady falls in admissions now, it’s important that we aren’t complacent.
“Even though the UK will start the vaccine roll out next week, many of us won’t be getting one for a few months, so keeping the numbers low and under control is really important for the NHS.”
