No new coronavirus deaths recorded in England, Scotland or Northern Ireland

No coronavirus-related deaths were recorded in the three nations for the first time in almost a year

(REUTERS)

No new coronavirus deaths were recorded in England, Scotland, or Northern Ireland for the first time in almost a year.

The last time the three nations recorded no deaths was July 30 2020.

The Government said a further four people had died in Wales, bringing the UK total to 127,609. The UK also recorded 2,357 new Covid-19 cases.

This compares with one death and 1,649 recorded last Monday.

It comes as the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) said that the easing of restrictions on May 17 will likely cause an increase in infections across England but not enough to overwhelm the NHS.

Modelling has shown that England’s R number will probably rise above 1 when lockdown measures are relaxed under stage three of the Government’s road map, Sage said.

While it means that Covid-19 infections will increase across the country, it is “highly unlikely to put unsustainable pressure” on the NHS, the group concluded at its meeting on May 5.

Sage said it remained “highly likely” there will be a further resurgence in hospital admissions and deaths “at some point”, and that the full impact of easing restriction will not be seen until mid-June at the earliest.

It follows an easing of restrictions across the UKPA Wire

But that resurgence will be smaller if measures that reduce transmission, such as social distancing, are maintained beyond the end of the Government’s road map on June 21.

“If baseline policies to reduce transmission are kept in place at the end of the road map, behaviour does not return to pre-pandemic levels, and vaccine rollout is not substantially slowed, there is an opportunity to keep the resurgence small,” Sage said.

Modelling has also shown lower peaks for hospital admissions and deaths, compared to previous waves, as evidence suggested that the vaccine may have a greater impact on transmission than previously thought.

But Sage said that aside from new variants, a low vaccine rollout amongst younger adults and high levels of contact at an early stage were the two “biggest risks” in terms of seeing a larger resurgence of the virus.

It warned that the virus that causes Covid-19 was evolving and it was likely that existing vaccines may fail to protect against transmission, infection and disease in the future.

“Updating the vaccine to keep pace with viral evolution or searching for more broadly protective vaccines are potential solutions to this,” Sage said.

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