More than 150,000 people in the UK have died after catching COVID-19, the government said on Saturday, in a tragic milestone for one of the worst-affected countries in Europe.
“[The] coronavirus has taken a terrible toll on our country and today the number of deaths recorded has reached 150,000,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson wrote on Twitter.
The government reported that deaths within 28 days of a positive COVID-19 test had reached 150,057 since the start of the pandemic. Russia is the only European country with a higher reported death toll, at almost 315,000.
Photo: AFP
In a Twitter statement on a black background, Johnson wrote that “each and every one of those” who died “is a profound loss to the families, friends and communities affected and my thoughts and condolences are with them.”
The number of daily reported cases in the UK surged to a record figure of more than 200,000 last week, but has subsided slightly in the past few days, with 146,390 cases reported in the last 24 hours.
The milestone comes after an additional 313 deaths were recorded, bringing the UK’s pandemic total to 150,057 people who have died within 28 days of testing positive for COVID-19.
However, separate figures published by the Office for National Statistics show there have been 174,000 deaths registered in the UK where COVID-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.
In the past seven days, 1,271 people have died, a 38 percent rise from the week before.
It comes as an additional 146,390 cases were reported on Saturday, bringing the UK’s total since the start of the pandemic to 14,333,794.
In the past seven days alone, 1,227,288 people have tested positive, official figures showed, marking a rise of more than 10 percent over the week before.
Across the UK, 18,454 people were in hospital with COVID-19 on Thursday, government figures showed, a 40 percent week-on-week rise and the highest number since Feb. 18 last year.
The country had introduced new rules, including compulsory wearing of face masks by school children during lessons, while Johnson resisted cracking down on social gatherings in England over the Christmas and New Year period.
The massive number of people testing positive or in self-isolation has hit staffing numbers in all sectors, including the state-funded health service, prompting the British Ministry of Defence to announce on Friday that it is sending troops to assist staff in hospitals.
Hospitalizations and deaths are nevertheless far lower than in the first wave of the pandemic, when people were unvaccinated.
The government is urging the public to get booster vaccinations, which have already been administered to around 61 percent of the population over the age of 12. It is also seeking to persuade the unvaccinated to receive shots.
“Our way out of this pandemic is for everyone to get their booster or their first or second dose if they haven’t yet,” Johnson said on Saturday.
Additional reporting by the Guardian
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