Britain's Covid deaths plunge to almost nothing: Daily fatalities drop by 75% in a week to 17 in lowest figure since SEPTEMBER while cases rise by 5% to 5,342 (but TWICE as many tests were carried out yesterday compared to last Sunday)
- Department of Health data showed deaths were last at this level in September before cases spiralled
- A further 5,342 infections were also recorded, which was a five per cent rise on the same time last week
- It comes as Boris Johnson reportedly agrees to offer the EU a share of 'millions of doses' of AstraZeneca jab
Britain's coronavirus death toll has plunged by three-quarters in a week to the lowest daily figure since before the second wave spiralled out of control six months ago.
Department of Health bosses posted another 17 Covid fatalities today, below the 64 recorded last Monday. It was the smallest daily death toll since September 28, when 13 victims were added to the official tally.
Another 5,342 positive tests were also registered in the last 24 hours — up five per cent in a week.
But swabbing figures have ramped up drastically since March 8, when schools in England were allowed to reopen with students and teachers asked to take two tests a week. Almost 1.9million coronavirus swabs were conducted yesterday, compared to 965,000 last Sunday.
The positivity rate — one of the most accurate ways of measuring the true scale of an outbreak when more swabs are done — is still dropping across all regions.
And Britain's vaccine roll-out — which must go smoothly for No10 to relax lockdown restrictions over the coming months — had its best ever Sunday performance yesterday, dishing out 420,000 jabs. It means almost 28million Britons have now had their first dose.
It comes after Boris Johnson warned today a third wave of Covid that is currently battering Europe could 'wash up on our shores'. Infection numbers are surging again in France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.
And in an attempt to defuse tensions with the EU, which is threatening to push ahead with an extraordinary export ban that could hamper Britain's vaccine roll-out, it was claimed that the Prime Minister was prepared to offer the bloc a 'share' of millions of doses of the AstraZeneca jab made at a Dutch factory.
Discussing the third wave of coronavirus that Europe is currently facing, the PM said that 'previous experience has taught us that when a wave hits our friends, it washes up on our shores as well'.
He said the UK's best defence was to keep vaccinating at full speed.
Mr Johnson's comments come amid growing fears the EU will push ahead with an extraordinary export ban on Pfizer and AstraZeneca jabs made on the continent, in a move which could delay the UK's rollout by months.
The row appears to be centred around a factory run by the firm Halix in Leiden, Netherlands, which has promised supplies of the AstraZeneca jab to both the UK and Europe but is not yet an approved supplier to either so none of its goods can be used.
Halix has already shipped a batch of unknown size to Britain, MailOnline understands, and is reported to be in possession of five to 10million more doses that the EU and UK are now wrangling over.
European chiefs are threatening to shut down exports if they don't get priority access to vaccines made on their turf, regardless of companies' agreements with the UK, so Downing Street is considering offering some of the supplies as a compromise, The Times reports.
Rows over vaccine supply have erupted after Britain set up side deals with factories abroad to boost supplies and the PM must now appeal to other leaders to resolve the crisis.
He spoke with EU heavyweights Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron last night to try and persuade them to soften their stance and has also sent Lord Lister, a government ally, to India to ease tensions over the delay to a batch of five million UK-bound doses of the vaccine.
Britain's bargaining chip is its ability to cut off supplies of a crucial ingredient for Pfizer's vaccine – the fat blobs that are used to carry the vaccine material are made in a factory in North Yorkshire, and ministers have privately admitted the UK could stop these being shipped if left with 'no choice'.
But rifts are already emerging within Europe and leaders already disagree on what to do. Irish PM Michael Martin said blocking vaccine supplies would be 'a very retrograde step' and added 'I'm very much against it'.
It was also revealed today that Germany looks set to tighten lockdown measures and extend them into April, as Europe's Covid third wave bites amid the bloc's shambolic jab roll-out.
Angela Merkel is meeting with Germany's regional leaders today for a summit that was supposed to be about easing restrictions.
But as Covid cases spike, leaked documents suggest the leaders will actually move to tighten a partial lockdown that has been in place since last year.
Meanwhile, ministers in the Netherlands and Belgium have also warned that measures may have to get stricter as cases spike.
And in France thousands of fed-up people took to the streets of Marseilles on Sunday to flout lockdown rules - with protests also taking place in Germany, Holland, Austria, Bulgaria, Switzerland, Serbia and Poland.
The streets of Paris were also packed with spring sun-seekers despite the city going back into lockdown last week.
Europe's third wave of Covid infections is gathering pace amid a woefully slow vaccine roll-out that has seen just eight per cent of its population given at least one dose - leaving the rest vulnerable to infection.
The fixer: Prime Minister Boris Johnson (pictured today) has sent one of his closest allies to India this week in hope of resolving the diplomatic stand-off which could see Britain miss out on 5m doses of AZ vaccine made at the nation's Serum Institute
Germany is one of several European countries heading for tough new lockdown measures as cases spike amid a stalled vaccine roll-out that has left people unprotected
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2021-03-22 16:19:15Z
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