Paramedics are working inside an ambulance parked in front of Royal London Hospital in East London on January 21, 2021.
DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS | AFP | Getty Images
LONDON – The official death toll in the UK due to the coronavirus pandemic reached 100,000 on Tuesday, the negative milestone reached as the recent rise in infections continues to put pressure on hospitals and emergency services.
The latest government data showed that another 1,631 people died within 28 days of a positive test. To date, the UK has registered over 3.6 million infections.
The UK has been particularly hard hit by the pandemic that erupted in the country almost a year ago. The first two cases reported by Covid-19 were in the tourist city of York in the north of England on January 31, 2020.
Now, a year later, the UK is in its third national blockade and is battling an increase in infections and subsequent hospitalizations and 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 most new infections in the UK. This has led to more people entering the hospital, putting extreme pressure on the health system.
The United Kingdom has the fifth largest number of cases in the world, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, after the USA, India, Brazil and Russia. France follows with about 3.1 million cases, followed by Italy and Spain, both with about 2.5 million cases, but the United Kingdom has a higher number of deaths than its European neighbors.
Experts reduced Britain’s harsh experience during the pandemic to several factors, including the first blockade later, which meant it struggled to gain control of the rapidly spreading virus and hesitation over the next two blockades, when cases have already begun. to grow again after periods of relaxation. A weak testing and tracking system was also a factor.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Tuesday that he had taken full responsibility for everything his government had done.
“What I can tell you is that we have really done everything we can and continue to do everything we can to minimize loss of life and minimize suffering,” he told a daily news conference.
On a more positive note, the United Kingdom is among the world leaders when it comes to its coronavirus vaccination campaign. It was the first country to authorize and launch the vaccine created by Pfizer and BioNTech and the jab created by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford.
After starting its vaccination campaign in early December, weeks before the EU, it has now vaccinated a large part of its priority groups; elderly and health care workers and now offers the vaccine over the age of 70 and to anyone who is extremely vulnerable.
To date, it has vaccinated more than 6.8 million people with at least the first dose of vaccine.