LONDON: More than half a million people in the United Kingdom received a dose of COVID-19 vaccine in a day, official data showed on Thursday, raising the total who have had two doses past 6 million.

A total of 31.8 million people have now had at least one dose, while 6.1 million have had two, after the health service delivered 99,530 first doses and 408,396 second doses in the latest 24-hour period.

The daily total number of new cases of the virus was 3,030, with the seven-day total of 20,056 down by 37pc compared with the previous seven-day period.

The daily number of deaths was 53, with the seven-day death toll of 216 down by 32pc compared with the previous seven days.