UK's daily COVID death rate now one of the lowest in Europe

The UK now has one of the lowest COVID death rates in Europe as the country slowly comes out of one of the toughest lockdowns in the world and hopes to rely on the success of the vaccine rollout to prevent a third wave.

According to Our World in Data the UK now has less than 0.46 deaths per million people from COVID every day.

The only European countries below the UK are Denmark on 0.4, Norway on 0.26 and Iceland on 0.

Much of the continent is currently suffering from a third wave of COVID, which is seeing nations return to lockdown as their healthcare systems come under pressure.

Hungary currently has the highest number of daily COVID deaths per million people in Europe at 24.73.

France, which has been forced back into lockdown in recent days has 3.45.

Unlike many European nations, the UK has remained in tough lockdown from the start of the year, with restrictions for most being tight as far back as October.

Other European countries have tried to lift lockdowns quickly after dealing with different winter spikes, but many are now returning to restrictions as the UK leaves them.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel recently said she supports a tougher lockdown as the country struggles with a third wave.

Watch: France goes into a third national lockdown

Read more: ‘Many, many more’ will die in Europe due to ‘stop-start’ COVID vaccine strategies, expert says

The latest figures show there were just 53 new deaths from COVID-19 in the UK on Thursday, with figures down by 32.5% in the last seven days compared to the previous week.

Some 712 deaths involving Covid-19 happened in the seven days to 19 March, according to the Office for National Statistics, down from 8,945 deaths in the week ending 22 January - a drop of 92%.

New cases are also dropping in the UK, with 3,030 confirmed on Thursday.

Meanwhile cases have been rising in many European countries.

Read more: COVID deaths decline in every region of England for eighth week in a row

Germany reported 30,377 new cases on 7 April and France reported over 80,000 in one day during the Easter weekend.

Italy, Spain and Poland have all seen their number of cases rise in recent days.

While the UK has got control over the number of infections at home, their are fears the new wave in Europe could reach Britain.

The government is hoping the success of the vaccine rollout will mean COIVD will be unable to spread through society as it has previously.

The latest figures show just under 32 million first doses have been administered in the UK, with just over six million second injections.

Meanwhile many EU nations have struggled to get their vaccine rollouts off the ground.

Germany - which has a larger population than the UK - has managed to hand out 15.34 million jabs, while France has only reached 12.79 million,