LONDON, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- Another 9,834 people in Britain have tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total number of coronavirus cases in the country to 4,115,509, according to official figures released Sunday.
The country also reported another 215 coronavirus-related deaths. The total number of coronavirus-related deaths in Britain now stands at 120,580. These figures only include the deaths of people who died within 28 days of their first positive test.
The latest figures were revealed as more than 17.5 million people in Britain have been given the first jab of the coronavirus vaccine.
Earlier Sunday, British Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the first dose of a COVID vaccine appears to reduce the chances of transmitting coronavirus by "about two-thirds".
"It looks like the first jab reduces your impact of transmitting the disease by about two-thirds but we need more evidence on that as well," he told Sky News.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has pledged that every adult in Britain will be given a jab of the COVID-19 vaccine by the end of July.
According to Johnson, people aged 50 and over and those with underlying health conditions will now be offered a jab by April 15.
The prime minister is set to unveil his "roadmap" exiting the current coronavirus lockdown on Monday. It is widely expected that schools in England would start to open on March 8.
England is currently under the third national lockdown since outbreak of the pandemic in the country. Similar restriction measures are also in place in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Johnson has said he would take a "prudent" approach to the easing of lockdown to ensure the process is "irreversible".
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. Enditem
