The milestone, reflecting the devastating impact the coronavirus has wrought on the country and its staggering turnaround since the vaccine rollout began, was greeted with joy across social media.
Scripps Research Translational Institute director Eric Topol immediately linked the successful vaccination programs in the UK and Israel to their respective zero-death days.
“Likely not a coincidence that the 2 countries leading the world in vaccination have both achieved zero death days now,” he said.
Many smaller countries that have not vaccinated as quickly as the UK or suppressed the virus as successfully as Australia have also recorded days without COVID-19 deaths.
But the good news came amid rising case numbers — 3165 confirmed COVID-19 cases compared to about 2400 last Tuesday — and fears about the rapid spread of variant B.1.617.2, also known as Delta, which was first discovered in India.
The increase has cast doubt on the Conservative government’s plans to lift social distancing rules and remaining pandemic-related restrictions on June 21.
Many scientists are urging a delay, arguing that more people need to be vaccinated before measures can be eased safely.
“In fact, according to the UK’s current definition, deaths within four weeks of a positive test, there was a day with no reportable deaths last summer – on 30 July,” he wrote
“But the government did announce some deaths on that day as they were using a different definition at the time.
“The pandemic is far from over, but this is a unique day in its history to date.”
The UK has recorded almost 128,000 coronavirus deaths, the highest toll in Europe.
A mass vaccination campaign that started in December brought new infections and deaths down sharply, a trend that continued even as case numbers started rising again.
A terminal at London’s Heathrow Airport that was mothballed because of the coronavirus pandemic reopened Tuesday, specifically to serve passengers arriving from high-risk countries — an action that critics said was long overdue.
Britain has barred travellers from a “red list” of 43 coronavirus hotspots including India, Brazil, Turkey and South Africa, fearing they could bring in worrisome virus variants.
UK citizens and residents who return from those countries face a mandatory 10-day supervised quarantine in a government-approved hotel.
Critics, however, have complained that red list passengers have been using the same airport arrivals hall as thousands of travellers from other destinations, though in separate lines, since hotel quarantine was introduced in February.
Some arriving passengers have described hours-long waits at Heathrow’s passport control in crowded conditions.