uk Covid-19: Concern at 'unprecedented' infection level in England England's "very high" Covid infection level is a "growing concern" as the NHS struggles to cope with rising patient numbers, a health official has said. On Monday, a record 41,385 Covid cases and 357 deaths were reported in the UK. NHS England said the number of people being treated for the virus in hospital is now 20,426, which is higher than the previous peak of about 19,000 in April. Health officials in Wales and Scotland have also said they are at risk of becoming overwhelmed. Monday's figure for new cases is the highest daily number reported by the UK government, and the first time the daily total has surpassed 40,000. It is thought the infection rate was much higher during the first peak in April, but testing capacity was too limited to detect the true number. Some data over the Christmas period is incomplete, as a result of certain services being paused. BBC health editor Hugh Pym said Monday's figure included some infections where reporting was delayed, but that officials did not deny there had been a significant increase in infections. alta Alberta death toll from COVID-19 pandemic tops 1,000 Province added 112 more deaths over the most recent 5-day period More than 1,000 people have now died from COVID-19 in Alberta, though active cases have continued to follow a downward trend over the past five days. The declining case numbers seen over the holiday season are, in part, due to the fact that laboratories have performed fewer tests in recent days, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, the province's chief medical officer of health, said at a news conference on Monday. Yet despite the drop in active and new cases, the number of people being treated in hospitals for the illness has not declined.

eu EU's massive COVID-19 vaccination campaign off to uneven start German officials dump doses that may not have been kept cold enough, delivery delay reported in Spain. The EU campaign to vaccinate Europeans against COVID-19 is off to an uneven start in what will be a marathon effort to administer shots to enough of the bloc's 450 million people to defeat the viral pandemic. The vaccination drive kicked off over the weekend, with health workers and residents of care homes across the bloc among the first to get shots of the EU's first 12.5 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which must be kept at ultra-cold temperatures and requires two doses. The rest of the EU's first doses are slated to arrive by New Year's Day. There were initial hiccups: Officials in southern Germany said on Monday they would dump around 1,000 doses after finding they may not have been properly chilled. Temperature controls also caused a delivery delay in Spain.