UK records another 104 COVID deaths and 5,455 new cases

Another 104 people have died after testing positive for coronavirus and a further 5,455 new cases have been reported.

This compares to the 144 coronavirus deaths and 6,035 new infections recorded on Sunday.

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Vaccinations also continue with 20,275,451 people receiving their first COVID-19 dose while 815,816 people have had both.

It comes as a hunt continues for a person in the UK infected with a coronavirus “variant of concern” from Brazil.

The COVID-19 variant, first seen in the city of Manaus, is feared to spread more rapidly than the original virus and could be more capable of evading existing vaccines.

Three cases of the P.1 coronavirus variant have been confirmed in England and three in Scotland, Public Health England said.

Two of the cases in England come from a household in South Gloucestershire, where one person returned from Brazil in mid-February, before hotel quarantine measures were introduced.

Meanwhile, a study by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) found there is no evidence of a difference between school staff testing positive for coronavirus antibodies and the wider working-age population.

The main findings from the Schools Infection Survey come ahead of children going back to classrooms in England next week as part of the first phase of lifting the coronavirus lockdown.

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