British health officials on Thursday lowered the country's virus alert level from 5 to 4, saying case numbers were falling and were less of a threat to the state-run National Health Service. The UK's chief medical officers and the medical director of NHS England said they had agreed "the UK alert level should move from level 5 to level 4 in all four nations", as cases were "consistently declining" and the threat of the NHS "being overwhelmed within 21 days has receded". am/phz/har