Another 847 COVID-19 patients die in UK hospitals

LONDON - Another 847 people who tested positive for COVID-19 have died in hospitals in Britain as of Thursday afternoon, bringing the total number of coronavirus-related deaths to 14,576, the Department of Health and Social Care said Friday.

As of Friday morning, 108,692 people tested positive for the virus, marking a daily increase of 5,599, said the department.

The British government on Thursday extended the current lockdown measures for "at least three weeks" in a bid to contain the spread of the virus.

Asserting that relaxing lockdown measures would lead to a resurgence of the virus, Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary and first secretary of state, said the government has decided relaxing the measures would make the economic impact worse, not better.