LONDON, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- Another 32,700 people in Britain have tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total number of coronavirus cases in the country to 6,211,868, according to official figures released Friday.

The country also reported another 100 coronavirus-related deaths. The total number of coronavirus-related deaths in Britain now stands at 130,801. These figures only include the deaths of people who died within 28 days of their first positive test.

The latest R value of COVID-19 for England is between 0.8 and 1.0, which means, on average, every 10 people infected with the virus will infect between 8 and 10 other people, according to the figures updated on Friday by the UK Health Security Agency.

The R value, or the reproduction number, is the average number of secondary COVID-19 infections produced by a single infected person.

Meanwhile, England's growth rate is between minus 4 percent and 0 percent per day, meaning the number of new infections could be broadly flat, shrinking by up to 4 percent every day, according to the data.

Professor James Naismith, director of the Rosalind Franklin Institute, told Sky News that he expects to see a fourth wave in the wake of eased restrictions and with the return of schools and people moving indoors after the summer.

He also called for a "more effective (vaccine) campaign to encourage the take-up amongst the hesitant", saying jabs are safe and effective and had already saved tens of thousands of lives, according to the Sky News report.

England lifted almost all its remaining COVID-19 restrictions on July 19. Nearly 90 percent of the adults in Britain have had their first dose of vaccine and more than three quarters of adults have received both doses, the latest figures showed.

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

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