A man cycles past the London Eye by the Thames in London, Britain, on Feb. 17, 2021.(Photo: Xinhua)

 
Britain's COVID-19 lockdown has been a "success" but the country is "still not out of the woods," the chief of the British Office for National Statistics (ONS) said Saturday.

"I think this lockdown has been a success but at the same time, while we have seen major reductions, we are still relatively high," Ian Diamond, head of the ONS, told the BBC.

"I'm in very much the view that we should do everything we can not to blow it nationally," he said. "We have done fantastically well in the last couple of months but we are not completely out of the woods yet."

Meanwhile, Diamond said it was "very difficult" to work out the difference between the lockdown impact and the effect the vaccine was having, but it was clear both were working in reducing the infections.

Another 5,947 people in Britain tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total number of coronavirus cases in the country to 4,207,304, according to official figures released Friday. The country's death toll rose by 236 to 124,261.

Meanwhile, nearly 21.3 million people in Britain had been given the first jab of a coronavirus vaccine. Health Secretary Matt Hancock confirmed Friday that two-fifths of Britain's entire adult population had been vaccinated.

England is currently under the third national lockdown since the outbreak of the pandemic in the country. Similar restriction measures are also in place in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.