LONDON, Nov. 18 (Xinhua) -- Another 19,609 people in Britain have tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total number of coronavirus cases in the country to 1,430,341, according to official figures released Wednesday. The coronavirus-related deaths in Britain rose by 529 to 53,274, the data showed.

Earlier Wednesday, a Downing Street spokesman said British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has a "clear intent to allow families to spend Christmas together", but this holiday will "not be a normal" one.

The British government's medical adviser Dr Susan Hopkins said Wednesday at a Downing Street briefing that for the government to "allow some mixing" of households over Christmas would require tougher rules before and after the holiday.

"That requires all of us to make every effort over this national restriction period and even in early December to get the cases as low as possible and to reduce the risk of transmission within households and between families," she said.

England is currently under a month-long national lockdown until Oct. 2, the second of its kind since the coronavirus outbreak in Britain, in a bid to quell the resurgence of coronavirus.

Johnson has said England will return to the previous Three-Tier system on Dec. 2, but according to Hopkins, ministers are now working on "new tiers" measures.

To bring life back to normal, countries such as Britain, China, Germany, Russia and the United States are racing against time to develop coronavirus vaccines. Enditem

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