‘OUR GRIEF AND LOSS’
QUEEN LEADS TRIBUTES AS THE COUNTRY MARKS THE FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF GOING INTO LOCKDOWN
THE Queen has led Britain in marking one year and at least 126,000 deaths since the first coronavirus lockdown – recognising the ‘grief and loss felt by so many’.
Twelve months to the day since prime minister Boris Johnson announced unprecedented restrictions on our freedoms as the global pandemic struck, she joined millions who paused for a minute’s silence at noon.
Last night at 8pm, across the country church bells rang, iconic buildings were lit up in yellow and millions more stood on doorsteps with candles and torches in a ‘beacon of remembrance’.
The Queen’s message was on a note with flowers she sent to St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London,
where the Duke of Edinburgh, 99, had heart surgery during the crisis.
It said: ‘As we look forward to a brighter future together, today we pause to reflect on the grief and loss that continues to be felt by so many people and families, and pay tribute to the immeasurable service of those who have supported us all over the last year.’
Her words came as Mr Johnson (pictured) promised a permanent memorial to victims – but admitted regrets over his government’s handling of the crisis.
‘The single biggest false assumption we made was about the potential for asymptomatic transmission and that did govern a lot of policy in the early days,’ he told a No.10 briefing.
The PM, who spent a week in hospital with Covid-19 last April, said Britain was now ‘cautiously but irreversibly, step by step, jab by jab, on the path to reclaiming our freedoms’.
He added: ‘For month after month, our fight against coronavirus was like fighting in the dark against a callous and invisible enemy until science helped us turn the lights on and gain the upper hand.’
The anniversary came amid signs the UK’s huge vaccine rollout – with 30million jabs protecting 54 per cent of people – will soon bring some normality. From having Europe’s worst death rate a month ago, we now have one of the lowest, with 5,379 new cases and 11 deaths recorded yesterday. And the Office for National Statistics said excess deaths are below the five-year average for the first time since last summer. But it also prompted calls for a public inquiry into why the UK initially suffered worse than many other nations. Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, visiting Chelsea and Westminster hospital, said: ‘I think the government was very slow to react, slow to go into lockdown, very slow with protective equipment to the front line. Then we went into the second wave and instead of learning the lessons they repeated the mistakes.’ The remembrance events were part of a day of reflection by end of life charity Marie Curie.