COVID-19 cases, fatalities drop in UK

LONDON

The UK reported 106,196 coronavirus cases between Feb. 5 and 11, a 28.6% decrease compared to a week prior, officials figures showed on Thursday.

During the same period, 5,279 people succumbed to the virus. This represents a 25.9% decline compared to the previous week.

The country reported 13,494 new cases and 678 deaths over the past 24 hours.

As of Feb. 10, more than 13 million people received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, with 524,447 people receiving the second.

The latest R range for the UK stands at 0.7-1.0, with the current growth rate at -5% to -2% per day. The R number is a mechanism used to rate the virus’s ability to spread, with R being the number of people that one infected person will pass the virus on to.

On Thursday, AstraZeneca that jointly produced a vaccine with the University of Oxford has said it could take six to nine months to produce a vaccine that is effective against variants of the virus.

In a statement quoted by The Guardian, Sir Mene Pangalos, an executive vice president at the firm, said, “work on the variants hasn’t started today, it started weeks and months ago, as soon as those new variants were identified and we are aiming to be in the clinic in the spring, with next-generation vaccines for the new variants.”

Although the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is effective against the novel coronavirus and its Kent variant, early studies last week revealed that it offers little protection against the South African mutation.

Despite the uncertainty surrounding the mutations, the World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday gave assurances of the Oxford vaccine's effectiveness and that it can continue to be administered to adults aged 65 and over.