The UK reported 1,325 new deaths from the coronavirus on Thursday, the highest daily death toll to date.
Why it matters: The massive spike in deaths is fueled in part by a highly transmissible COVID-19 variant that is rapidly spreading across the UK and threatening to overwhelm hospital systems.
Between the lines: Per capita, the figure is even worse than the record of 4,000 COVID-19 deaths reported in the US within 24 hours. Friday, London mayor Sadiq Khan declared a “major incident” due to the virus, which has infected 1 in 30 Londoners.
The big picture: The UK, which has been completely shut down for at least the next six weeks, was the first country in the world to approve and begin administering both the Pfizer vaccine and the Oxford Astrazeneca vaccine.
- Earlier Friday, UK regulators approved the Moderna vaccine for emergency use.
- The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) notes that while the new coronavirus variant is more transmissible, there is “no evidence that the variant has any effect on disease severity or vaccine efficacy.”