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LONDON, May 20 (Reuters) - Britain reported 2,874 new
COVID-19 cases on Thursday, government statistics showed, the
highest daily figure for new cases since April 19.
The uptick comes as Prime Minister Boris Johnson pushes
ahead with re-opening England's economy from COVID-19 lockdown,
and as a quick rollout of vaccines decouples the link between
case numbers and hospitalisations and deaths.
While there is a lag between cases and hospitalisations, the
numbers of patients in hospital has been coming down
consistently, even when cases were last at such levels.
On April 19, when there were 2,963 daily cases reported,
2,006 people were in hospital. But on Thursday, the total number
of patients in hospital fell below 900 for the first time since
September.
Britain recorded another 7 deaths within 28 days of a
positive COVID-19 test, and the statistics portal showed 37.25
million people had been given a first dose of COVID-19 vaccine.
(Reporting by Alistair Smout; editing by Kate Holton)
