Covid death toll passes 100,000
BORIS JOHNSON has offered his “deepest condolences” to those who have lost relatives to coronavirus and pledged to ensure their loved ones are remembered as the Government’s figure for Covid-19 deaths passed 100,000.
The Prime Minister said that when the country comes through the crisis “we will come together as a nation to remember everyone we lost and to honour the selfless heroism of all those on the front line who gave their lives to save others”.
Mr Johnson told a Downing Street press conference: “I’m sorry to have to tell you that today the number of deaths recorded from Covid in the UK has surpassed 100,000.
“I offer my deepest condolences to everyone who’s lost a loved one: fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, and the many grandparents who have been taken.”
Separate figures published by statistics agencies – together with additional data on deaths in recent days – show there have been more than 115,000 deaths involving Covid-19 in the UK where the virus has been mentioned on the death certificate.
Mr Johnson said it was “hard to compute the sorrow contained in that grim statistic: the years of life lost, the family gatherings not attended and for so many relatives the missed chance to even say goodbye”.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said it was a “national tragedy”, adding: “We must never become numb to these numbers or treat them as just statistics. Every death is a loved one, a friend, a neighbour, a partner or a colleague. It is an empty chair at the dinner table.”
England’s chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty said it was a “very sad day”. At the Downing Street press conference, he said the number of people testing positive for coronavirus was “still at a very high number, but it has been coming down”. As of 9am yesterday, there had been a further 20,089 confirmed cases in the UK.
He cautioned that Office for National Statistics data demonstrates a slower decrease, adding: “I think we need to be careful we do not relax too early”.
He said the number of people in hospital with Covid-19 in the UK was still an “incredibly high number”.
Prof Whitty said this had “flattened off” and was not still rising overall but was “substantially above the peak in April”.
Prof Whitty said that “unfortunately we’re going to see quite a lot more deaths over the next few weeks before the effects of the vaccines begin to be felt”.
He added: “I think we have to be realistic that that is going to happen. But trying to actually put a number on that, I don’t think is helpful to anybody.”
Government data up to January 25 shows of the 7,325,773 jabs given in the UK so far, 6,853,327 were first doses – a rise of 279,757 on the previous day’s figures.
Mr Johnson said he has “total confidence” in the UK’S supply of vaccines.