UK coronavirus death toll exceeds 100,000

LONDON – The UK’s official death toll from the coronavirus pandemic reached 100,000 on Tuesday, a grim milestone as a recent outbreak of infections continues to put pressure on hospitals and emergency services.

The latest government data showed another 1,631 people had died within 28 days of a positive test. The UK has recorded over 3.6 million infections to date.

Britain has been particularly hard hit by the pandemic that erupted in the country almost a year ago. The first two reported cases of Covid-19 occurred in the tourist town of York, in northern England, on January 31, 2020.

Now, a year later, the UK is in its third national lockdown and is battling an increase in infections, as well as hospitalizations and subsequent deaths, caused by a more transmissible variant of the virus. First discovered in the south-east of England in September 2020, the mutation then spread to London and is now responsible for the majority of new infections in Britain. This has led to more people being hospitalized, putting extreme pressure on the healthcare system.

The UK has the fifth highest number of cases in the world, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, after the United States, India, Brazil and Russia. France with around 3.1 million cases, followed by Italy and Spain, both with around 2.5 million cases each, but the UK has a higher death toll than its European neighbors.

Experts put the UK’s harsh experience during the pandemic on a number of factors, including its first subsequent lockdown which meant it was struggling to take control of the rapidly spreading virus and hesitation over both subsequent lockouts when cases had already started to increase after periods of relaxation. A poor testing and tracing system was also a factor.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Tuesday he took full responsibility for everything his government had done.

“What I can tell you is that we have really done all we can and continue to do all we can to minimize loss of life and minimize suffering,” he said. a daily press conference.

On a more positive note, the UK is among the world leaders when it comes to its coronavirus vaccination campaign. It was the first country to authorize and deploy the vaccine created by Pfizer and BioNTech, and the jab created by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford.

Having started his vaccination campaign at the beginning of December, a few weeks before the EU, he has now vaccinated a good part of his priority groups; the elderly and health / home care workers, and now offers the vaccine to those over 70 and anyone extremely vulnerable.

To date, it has vaccinated more than 6.8 million people with at least the first dose of a vaccine.