As it happened: Covid-19 - UK first in Europe to pass 60,000 Covid deaths - BBC News
The UK's death figures only include people who died within 28 days of testing positive for coronavirus.
An exasperated sigh sums up the reaction from a number of European capitals to the vaccine victory proclamations of some British government ministers. Education Secretary Gavin Williamson’s sweeping assessment that the UK is a “better” country than many of its allies was seen as particularly bold.

One senior diplomat told me he was delighted Britons would soon be receiving the vaccine, but that “someone should remind Mr Williamson that the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was created by a German company, founded by scientists of Turkish origin, in partnership with an American distributor, and is being manufactured in Belgium before being transported across France to reach the UK”.

The claim that Brexit allowed the UK to approve the vaccine faster than other Europe countries has been disproved, but it does reflect once again a different path the UK is taking.

All EU countries have the option to follow the UK example and let their domestic drug regulator issue emergency approval, but the bloc says it wants to wait for the European Medicines Agency to give the green light on all their behalf.

But if the Europe-wide delivery of a vaccine which promises to end the coronavirus misery for millions is pushed back, there will likely be more voices asking: “Why can’t we have what the Brits have already got?”.