London [UK], January 4 (ANI/Sputnik): The United Kingdom registered 54,990 COVID-19 cases within the past 24 hours, a drop from 57,725 the day before, according to government figures.
This takes the total number of registered cases in the country to 2,654,779.
At the same time, an additional 454 fatalities, up from 445 on Saturday, put the overall death toll at 75,024.
UK's health authorities do not keep a tally of recoveries, which leaves the number of active cases in the country unknown.
The UK may have been the origin of a new strain of the coronavirus which is believed to be 70 percent more infectious than its predecessor and may be driving the new wave of transmissions.
Much of the UK is under the strictest level of lockdown with the holiday season effectively cancelled this year. (ANI/Sputnik)

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UK registers almost 55,000 COVID-19 cases in past 24 hours