UK records highest daily COVID-19 death toll since April

A man receives the second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at Hyde Leisure Centre in Greater Manchester, Britain, on Jan. 7, 2021. (Photo by Jon Super/Xinhua)

Britain has recorded its highest number of daily COVID-19 deaths since April 21 -- 1,162.

The country's total number of infections has risen to 2,889,419, with death tally reaching 78,508.

LONDON, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Britain reported a further 1,162 coronavirus-related deaths in the latest 24-hour period, the highest since April 21, official figures showed Thursday.

This brought the total number of coronavirus-related deaths in Britain to 78,508, the data showed.

Meanwhile, Britain recorded another 52,618 coronavirus cases, bringing the total number of coronavirus cases in the country to 2,889,419.

The latest figures were revealed as British Health Secretary Matt Hancock predicted Thursday that England's latest national lockdown will be the last full shutdown to tackle the COVID crisis as the country continues to roll out vaccines.

A woman wearing a face mask walks along the Tower Bridge in London, Britain, on Jan. 5, 2021. (Xinhua/Han Yan)

Hancock also predicted that vaccines and coronavirus testing would still be part of life during 2022.

"There is absolutely no doubt that vaccines and testing will still be a feature next year," he told the health committee of the House of Commons, lower house of parliament.

"We will need both the surveillance testing to be able to understand where the virus is and we will need testing for people who have symptoms, in the same way that you get tested for all sorts of other things," he said.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has warned that the easing of England's new national lockdown, the third of its kind since the pandemic began in the country, would be a "gradual unwrapping" and not a "big bang".

Announcing the lockdown on Monday evening in a televised address, Johnson urged people across the country to "stay at home" except for permitted reasons, echoing the message back in March 2020.

To bring life back to normal, countries such as Britain, China, Germany, Russia and the United States have been racing against time to develop coronavirus vaccines.