UK battles big spike in new Covid-19 cases, but deaths remain low
The UK has reported 12,872 new Covid-19 cases on Saturday, and 7,070 this morning. The Saturday report of Friday’s new cases were a record daily addition of new cases for the country, taking the overall total since the start of the pandemic to 480,017. The British government is blaming the jump on a “reporting delay” and saying the numbers in coming days would include additional cases.
The UK’s current 2nd wave of Covid-19 cases exceeds the daily reported cases from the 1st wave. On a positive note, the number of deaths remains relatively low – between 35 and 60 per day over the past week – in comparison to the 1,000+ deaths per day at the heat of the 1st wave back in April this year. The UK appears to be in the middle of a 2nd wave although the number of daily new cases may be starting to level off.
The government’s website had been having problems. A “technical issue” caused a delay in the release of the numbers. But it means extra cases in England from the previous period between September 24 and October 1 will be added to the coming days’ tallies. The issue has since been resolved.
But the technical issue is being seized on by critics who say the government has “lost control of the virus amid a shortage of testing capacity”. The British government is now processing more than 200,000 Covid-19 tests a day compared with fewer than 100,000 at the start of the pandemic.
At 12,872, the number of daily cases reported from Friday’s 24 hour period almost doubled from the 6,968 reported on Thursday.
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