Another 32,651 people in Britain have tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total number of coronavirus cases in the country to 7,371,301, according to official figures released Friday.

The country also recorded another 178 coronavirus-related deaths. The total number of coronavirus-related deaths in Britain now stands at 134,983. These figures only include the deaths of people who died within 28 days of their first positive test.

The latest data came as British Transport Secretary Grant Shapps announced major relaxing of travel rules for people coming in and out of England.

From Oct. 4, the current traffic light system of red, amber and green countries will be scrapped and replaced with one red list only.

The previous amber and green lists will merge into a "Rest of World" (ROW) list. Anyone in a country on this list who's fully vaccinated will no longer have to take a PCR test three days before travelling to England.

From the end of October, fully vaccinated passengers from non-red list countries will be able to replace day-two PCR tests with cheaper lateral flow tests.

The government has also announced that from Sept. 22, eight destinations, including Turkey and Egypt, will be dropped from the red list, which requires hotel quarantine.

More than 89 percent of people aged 16 and over in Britain have had their first dose of vaccine and more than 81 percent have received both doses, the latest figures showed.

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

Related

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)