Europe Coronavirus Updates: UK, Portugal and Slovenia report highest daily spike in coronavirus cases

A man cycles by the River Thames backdropped by the Tower Bridge in London, Britain, on Jan. 5, 2021. (Xinhua/Han Yan)

-- UK reports another 62,322 cases, highest daily spike;

-- Germany records over 1,000 deaths within one day;

-- Portugal reports highest daily cases;

-- France's daily cases exceed 25,000 as pressure eases in hospitals;

-- Slovenia's daily cases top 3,000 for first time.

BRUSSELS, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- The following are the latest developments of the COVID-19 pandemic in European countries.

LONDON -- Britain reported a further 1,041 coronavirus-related deaths in the latest 24-hour period, the highest since April, official figures showed Wednesday.

This brought the total number of coronavirus-related deaths in the country to 77,346, the data showed.

Meanwhile, the number of daily confirmed cases in Britain hit 62,322 on Wednesday, the highest since the outbreak of the pandemic in the country.

It was the second day in a row that the number of daily confirmed cases of coronavirus in Britain topped 60,000. The total number of cases in the country now stands at 2,836,801.

Signs reminding people to wear facial masks and to avoid alcohol drinking in public places are seen on a street in Frankfurt, Germany, on Dec. 16, 2020. (Photo by Armando Babani/Xinhua)

BERLIN -- Germany reported 1,019 COVID-19 deaths within one day, bringing the death toll in the country to 36,537, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) said on Wednesday.

The number of daily infections was slightly below the previous week's level as the country recorded 21,237 new cases, taking the total to more than 1.8 million, according to the federal government agency for disease control and prevention.

The RKI stressed that the interpretation of data would remain difficult as COVID-19 cases in Germany were recorded and transmitted with a delay because of the Christmas and New Year holidays.

A health worker receives a first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at the Santa Maria Hospital in Lisbon, Portugal, Dec. 27, 2020. (Photo by Pedro Fiuza/Xinhua)

LISBON -- Portugal on Wednesday reported 10,027 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, the highest daily number since the start of the pandemic, bringing the national total to 446,606.

COVID-19 related deaths in the country rose by 91 to 7,377, according to the Directorate-General for Health (DGS). The recoveries, meanwhile, increased by 3,115 to 352,225.

More than 70 percent of new infections are concentrated in the Lisbon and Vale do Tejo region and the North region, coincidentally the most populous and urbanized areas in Portugal.

A woman receives a COVID-19 vaccine during a vaccination campaign for healthcare professionals in Nice, southern France, on Jan. 5, 2021. (Photo by Serge Haouzi/Xinhua)

PARIS -- A total of 25,379 people tested positive for COVID-19 in France in the past 24 hours, the highest daily tally in one week, while pressure on the country's hospitals continued to ease, the health authorities said on Wednesday.

The grand total of France's confirmed coronavirus cases was 2,705,618 on Wednesday, ranking the country sixth highest globally after the United States, India, Brazil, Russia and Britain.

Hospital admissions dropped by 163 to 24,741. That included 2,616 people in intensive care units, down from 2,625 on Tuesday.

Since the start of the outbreak, France has reported 66,565 coronavirus-related deaths. On Wednesday alone, 283 patients died.

People wait in line to have COVID-19 tests in Congress Square in Ljubljana, Slovenia, on Dec. 22, 2020. (Photo by Zeljko Stevanic/Xinhua)

LJUBLJANA -- Slovenia on Wednesday registered a record daily number of 3,354 COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of coronavirus cases to 131,787 in the country, according to the National Institute of Public Health.

On Tuesday, a combined total of 22,194 PCR (polymerase chain reaction) and rapid antigen tests were performed in the country. Of the 6,956 PCR tests performed, 2,602 came back positive. That resulted in a positivity rate of 37.4 percent. The positivity rate for the 15,238 rapid antigen tests exceeded 4.9 percent. Thirty-one new deaths took the toll to 2,899.

The national COVID-19 tracker site Sledilnik shows that there are currently 21,781 active cases in Slovenia. A total of 1,177 patients are in hospital for COVID-19, 183 of them in intensive care.