UK records further 533 Covid deaths bringing tally to 62,566
9 December 2020, 20:46
A further 533 people have died with coronavirus in the UK, bringing the country's pandemic death toll to 62,566.
The government said another 16,578 individuals tested positive for Covid-19 in Britain, meaning 1,766,819 people have now been infected with the virus.
Official death toll figures include those who died within 28 days of testing positive for coronavirus.
However, separate figures show there have now been more than 78,000 deaths involving Covid.
That data is published by the UK's statistics agencies for deaths where coronavirus has been mentioned on the death certificate, together with additional figures on deaths that have occurred in recent days.
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In Scotland, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said 39 coronavirus deaths and 897 positive tests have been recorded in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of fatalities under daily measures to 3,989.
However, data released by the National Records of Scotland shows 5,868 people have died with confirmed or suspected coronavirus since the pandemic began.
Wales recorded a further 2,238 cases of Covid-19, bringing the total number of confirmed cases there to 94,030.
Public Health Wales reported another 31 deaths, taking the total in the nation since the start of the pandemic to 2,756.
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It comes on the day the government was warned to put London into Tier 3 restrictions to avoid a surge in deaths over Christmas.
Professor John Ashton, a former regional director of public health for north-west England, told the Guardian: “[Ministers] need to decide in the next 48 hours whether to move London into Tier 3 otherwise they really risk a terrible situation for London, with deaths going up during the Christmas period.
“They might have to go to complete lockdown.”
Elsewhere, two NHS staff members who received the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine on Tuesday - the first day of the mass vaccination programme - are recovering well after suffering an allergic reaction following their jabs.
It is understood both the staff members had a significant history of allergic reactions - to the extent where they need to carry an adrenaline auto-injector with them.
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