Nearly 21 million people in the UK have now had a first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

The government also reported 242 more coronavirus-related deaths and 6,573 new cases in the latest 24-hour period.

This compares to the 315 fatalities and 6,385 infections announced on Wednesday.

The number of people who have now had a first COVID-19 vaccine dose is 20,982,571 after a further 278,956 had the jab on Wednesday.

And almost a million people – 963,862 – have now received the second jab, government figures show.

Meanwhile, Downing Street has urged people to continue to respect the lockdown after a survey suggested more than four in 10 over-80s who received a vaccine appear to have since broken the rules by meeting up with someone indoors.

After the Office for National Statistics (ONS) data was released, the prime minister’s official spokesman said: “It’s important that people continue to follow the guidelines that are in place.”

Asked if the elderly were behaving irresponsibly, the spokesman said: “We are asking everybody to continue to follow the rules and guidelines.”

The survey found 43% of over-80s said they had met up with someone outside their household, support or care bubble indoors after getting their first jab.

And 41% admitted they did so less than three weeks after getting their first dose, “appearing to break lockdown regulations”.

Since the pandemic began, a total of 124,025 people in the UK have now died within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test, and there have been 4,201,358 lab-confirmed cases.

Also, the UK could become one of the fastest countries in the world to approve new COVID-19 vaccines to tackle variants.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) will oversee a fast-track approach to approving new jabs, after studies suggested variants may make vaccines less effective.

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