The UK reported 1,325 new deaths from coronavirus on Thursday, marking the highest number of daily deaths to date.
Why it matters: The massive increase in deaths is partly fueled by a highly transmissible COVID-19 variant that is spreading rapidly across the UK and threatening to overwhelm hospital systems.
Between the lines: The number is even worse on a per capita basis than the record of 4,000 COVID-19 deaths reported in 24 hours in the U.S. On Friday, Mayor Sadiq Khan of London declared a “big incident” because of the virus, which infected 1 in 30 Londoners.
The big picture: The United Kingdom, which has been in total blockade for at least the next six weeks, was the first country in the world to approve and start administering the Pfizer vaccine and the Oxford-Astrazeneca vaccine.
- Early Friday, British regulators released the Modern vaccine for emergency use.
- The Center for Disease Control (CDC) notes that, while the new coronavirus variant is more transmissible, “there is no evidence to suggest that the variant has any impact on the severity of the disease or the effectiveness of the vaccine.”