UK records more than 50,000 COVID-19 cases for 4th consecutive day

Britain reported more than 50,000 positive virus cases for a fourth consecutive day as a new variant of COVID-19 levels across the country.

UK officials reported 53,285 people had tested positive in the 24 hours ending on January 01.

It was a slight drop from the previous day's record high but a further sign that the virus is spreading rapidly, particularly in England.

More than a quarter of a million people have tested real in the UK since Monday, adding to a total of 2.5 million since the pandemic began.

The figures began as a detailed study into the new coronavirus variant found it affected a much more superior proportion of people under 20.

Experts behind the study, by Imperial College in London, warned this could be because it started to spread when England was in lockdown, but schools were still open.

Change in vaccine strategy

"Until a very high proportion of the community has been vaccinated, strong social distancing measures are needed to control this more transmissible variant of COVID-19," said Prof Axel Gandy of Imperial College London.

"Everybody that can be treated should be vaccinated."

The UK is also the world's first country to initiate mass vaccination of its people. The immunisation was started on December 08 where in the first week over 130,000 people were immunised with the Pfizer/BioNtech jabs.

The government is initially vaccinating its health care workers and elderly.

Uk is among the worse hit nations in the region, and it also recorded the highest number of deaths due to the coronavirus pandemic.

After the new variant of coronavirus, that is expected to be 70% more infectious- several countries have halted flights to the UK. The battle of coronavirus continues to get harder for health departments in the country as the rapidly growing number in coronavirus cases raises the alarm.