UK Covid alert level drops

The coronavirus alert level has been downgraded from five – the highest level – to four in all of the UK nations, as the chief medical officers said the risk of the NHS being overwhelmed “had receded”. But they warned people should be under “no illusions” about the pandemic with deaths and infections still at very high levels.

The latest 24-hour government figures show a further 323 people are reported to have died with Covid, bringing the UK total to 122,000. Nearly 10,000 more new cases have been reported in the UK. Just under 449,000 people received their first dose of the Covid vaccine yesterday, meaning more than 18 and a half million people have now received their first dose of a vaccine.