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The number of new Covid cases reported in the UK has continued to fall for the seventh day in a row – the first time this has happened since November, during England’s second national lockdown.

New daily cases are now at 20,290 – down by more than half from 43,261 last Tuesday. It is the first time since the start of the pandemic that a sustained drop in cases has not coincided with a national lockdown.

The prolonged downturn has prompted some to wonder – whisper it quietly – whether the pandemic might be on the way out. Even “Professor Lockdown” and predictor of doom, Professor Neil Ferguson, said he was “positive” that England will “put the bulk of the pandemic behind us” by October.