LONDON, Dec 4 — The United Kingdom's total death toll from Covid-19 surpassed 60,000 yesterday, by the government's preferred measure of deaths within 28 days of a positive test.

The UK toll is the fifth highest in the world after the United States, Brazil, India and Mexico. It is the highest in Europe ahead of Italy and France.

Official daily data showed that 414 new deaths were reported yesterday, taking the total since the start of the pandemic to 60,113.

The number of deaths over the past seven days was 3,085, down 5 per cent compared with the previous seven days.

Until August, the United Kingdom was tallying its official Covid-19 death toll by a different measure, namely all deaths where the disease was mentioned on the death certificate. By that measure, the toll has now reached 69,752.

In terms of cases, a total of 14,879 new cases were reported across the United Kingdom on Thursday, taking the total over the past seven days to 100,857, down 17 per cent compared with the previous seven-day period.

The total number of cases since the start of the pandemic stood at 1,674,134. — Reuters