The UK reported on Wednesday the highest number of cases of COVID-19 in a single day since the pandemic began, as the country imposes new restrictions to prevent the spread of the virus.
Statistics released by the British government showed that almost 40,000 cases were counted on Wednesday and 744 new deaths were recorded within 28 days of the positive test, the highest mortality since the end of April.
There have been more than 236,000 positive cases in the last seven days, an increase of 61% over the previous seven-day period.
Worrying figures come as the UK works to protect its residents from a new, rapidly spreading strain of COVID-19 that experts warn is more infectious than the virus that has killed people since the initial outbreak of the pandemic. .
To combat the spread of the virus, the government announced on Wednesday that more areas of England would fall under level 4 restrictions, the most severe in the kingdom.
Restrictions mean that residents in these areas will have to stay home except to travel to work in an essential way, and that they will have to close shopping malls, indoor gyms and non-essential leisure facilities.
“After all the efforts we have made to control this virus, and in many parts of the country, this virus is under control. Just as we have a tier system capable of controlling this virus, we have discovered a new, more contagious virus, a variant that is spreading at a dangerous rate. And I know that the vast majority of people watching today and across the country understand what we need to do together to achieve this, ”Secretary of State for Health and Welfare Matt Hancock said at a news conference.
The UK has had close to 2.2 million cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic began and more than 69,000 people have died.