London has first day with no virus deaths

London recorded its first day in weeks without a death from Covid-19 yesterday as Matt Hancock said it marked a “real milestone”. There were just 55 deaths in Britain, the lowest figures since the weekend before lockdown. The number of people testing positive is also the lowest since March, with the R rate below one in every region. “It is clear that coronavirus is in retreat across the country, but we must be vigilant and cautious,” the Health Secretary said.

‘While this is clearly not over, there is progress. We can proceed with our plan of making some changes’

LONDON recorded its first day without a death from Covid-19 yesterday as Matt Hancock said it marked a “real milestone” that showed the disease was in retreat across the country.

There were just 55 deaths in Britain, the lowest figures since the weekend before lockdown.

The number of people testing positive is also the lowest since March, with the R rate below one in every region.

“It is clear that coronavirus is in retreat across the country, but we must be vigilant and cautious,” the Health Secretary told the daily briefing.

“Today’s figures also show that there were no deaths recorded in London hospitals which is a real milestone for the capital, which, of course, in the early stages faced the biggest peak.

“All of these data are pointing in the right direction and it shows we are winning the battle with this disease. While this is clearly not over, there is progress. We can proceed with our plan of making some changes.”

The number of confirmed cases was 1,205, the lowest since March. Daily

Covid-19 hospital admissions have fallen to 519 from 661 a week ago.

The number of care homes reporting cases has dropped by nearly 50 per cent since last week. The total of confirmed deaths in Britain is now 40,597.

Elsewhere, modelling by Imperial College suggests 470,000 lives have been saved in Britain by lockdown, although scientists admitted the UK would have achieved herd immunity by now had the virus run unchecked, infecting 71 per cent of Britons.

Dr Samir Bhatt, the study’s author, said: “This data suggests that without any interventions, such as lockdown and school closures, there could have been many more deaths from Covid-19.”

The Imperial team warned that many interventions would need to stay in place to avoid a second wave.

“When you release lockdown and go for milder inventions, yes, economic stability can return, but you then have to trade off the rise in infections that is possible,” added Dr Bhatt.

The figures show around 15million people were infected in 11 countries, about 4 per cent of everyone in Europe, which means no country is near herd immunity. The paper was published in the journal Nature.