LONDON, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- Britain has recorded the highest number of weekly coronavirus deaths since May 15, figures from the British Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed Tuesday.

Shoppers are seen in London's main high-street shopping district on Oxford Street with non-essential shops reopening in London on December 2, 2020 as England emerges from a month-long lockdown to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus. (File photo: AFP)

The latest data from the ONS showed that a total of 3,040 deaths registered in England and Wales in the week ending Nov. 27 mentioned COVID-19 on the death certificate, marking the highest number of coronavirus-related deaths since the week ending May 15.

The figures came as a 90-year-old British woman became the first person in Britain to receive the approved coronavirus vaccine on Tuesday.

England is currently under a new three-tier system of coronavirus restrictions that replaced the month-long national lockdown in England ending on Dec. 2.

Under the new system, shops are allowed to re-open across England, giving a Christmas bonanza to the struggling retail sector, but all bars and restaurants in the toughest Tier Three areas remain closed. The system put about 98 percent of England into the highest Tier Two and Three.

Another 14,718 people in Britain have tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total number of coronavirus cases in the country to 1,737,960, according to official figures released Monday.

The coronavirus-related deaths in Britain rose by 189 to 61,434, the data showed.

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