Iran Press/ Europe: The reported UK daily number of deaths exceeded the 1,325 recorded on Jan. 8 and comes as Britain battles a new, more transmissible variant of the virus. The government figures showed there were another 47,525 cases, up from 45,533 new cases on Tuesday.
The United States also set a record Tuesday for the most Covid-19 deaths reported in one day since the start of the pandemic, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
There have now been almost 85,000 deaths in Britain - the fifth-highest figure globally - and 3.2 million have tested positive for COVID-19.
"With each passing day, more and more people are tragically losing their lives to this terrible virus, and today we have reported the highest number of deaths on a single day since the pandemic began," Yvonne Doyle, the Medical Director for Public Health England, said on Twitter.
"There have now been more deaths in the second wave than the first."
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said there were about 32,000 COVID-19 patients in hospitals, about 70% more than during the peak of the first outbreak last April, and he said the risk of intensive care units being overwhelmed was substantial.
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