The UK's coronavirus death toll has increased by its lowest amount on a Tuesday since lockdown began.
Today a further 15 deaths were added to the grim toll, bringing it to 33,798.
That is 13 fewer deaths than last Tuesday, which at that point was the lowest rise on a Tuesday since March 23.
A further 15 deaths were recorded in English hospitals, but there were no new fatalities logged in Scottish or Welsh hospitals.
Northern Ireland has yet to report its figures but they are expected to be zero.
Yesterday the UK recorded its lowest daily rise - six - in the hospital death toll since March 12, when two people lost their lives.
The comparatively high number of number of deaths today compared to yesterday is primarily due to a lag in reporting over the weekend.
This typically leads to a spike on Tuesdays.
The updated death toll follows pieces of good and bad news.
Yesterday it was reported that the University of Oxford's vaccine trials showed the injection led to them making antibodies and T-cells that can fight coronavirus.
It was also found to be safe in trials involving 1,077 people.
It is now hoped that some people who are particularly at risk, such as NHS workers, will receive the vaccine by Christmas.
However, today Sage expert Sir Jeremy Farrar warned that the UK will likely be living with the coronavirus for years.
He rubbished the Prime Minister’s optimistic suggestion that the UK could see a “significant return” to normal life by the end of the year.
“Things will not be done by Christmas,” he told MPs.
“This infection is not going away. It’s now a human endemic infection and actually even if we have a vaccine, or very good treatments, humanity will still be living with this virus for very many years to come.”
Sir Jeremy, director of the Wellcome Trust, told MPs the UK needed to “keep the urgency” but added: “We need to move now to a consistent long term approach to this because humanity will be living with this infection for decades to come.”
