According to the data, it brings the UK total deaths to 49,238. However, separate figures published by the UK’s statistics agencies for deaths where COVID-19 was mentioned on the death certificate, together with additional data, show there have now been 65,000 deaths involving coronavirus in the UK. The number of people testing positive for COVID-19 has also risen, to 21,350, up from Sunday’s figure of 20,572. The number of confirmed cases across the country has now reached 1.213 million. A coronavirus vaccine found to be 90% effective could be rolled out to the highest priority Britons by Christmas, the government’s deputy chief medical officer has said. Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, speaking at a press conference alongside Boris Johnson, lauded the vaccine developed by US drug giant Pfizer and German biotech firm BioNTech as “a very important scientific breakthrough”. The scientist said the vaccine will not make a difference to the wave of coronavirus currently spreading throughout the UK, but said it could help in future waves. Prof Van-Tam said he is “hopeful we could see some vaccine by Christmas” but he urged people to not “get too over-excited about where we are. I’m hopeful that it may prevent future waves,” he said, “but this one we have to battle through to the end without a vaccine.” The Department of Health in Ireland has confirmed 270 new cases of Covid-19, bringing the total number of cases to 65,659. One further death has occurred from Covid-19, bringing the total number of deaths to 1,948. Of the cases notified today, 143 are men and 127 are women, 69% are under 45 years of age.