UK first European country to pass 100,000 COVID deaths
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The UK becomes the seventh country to pass 100,000 COVID deaths following the US, Brazil, India, Russia, Mexico, and Peru.
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According to official figures, 1,227,288 people have tested positive in the UK in the last seven days.
More than 150,000 people have died after catching the coronavirus in the UK, the government said Saturday, in a tragic milestone for one of the worst affected countries in Europe.
The government reported that deaths within 28 days of a positive COVID test have reached 150,057 since the start of the pandemic.
On Saturday, the UK became the seventh country to pass 100,000 deaths following the US, Brazil, India, Russia, Mexico, and Peru, and the first European country to pass this death toll, reported The Guardian.
According to official figures, 1,227,288 people have tested positive in the UK in the last seven days.
UK's Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted, "Coronavirus has taken a terrible toll on our country and today the number of deaths recorded has reached 150,000."
Johnson said 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."
— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) January 8, 2022
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 recent days with 146,390 cases reported in the last 24 hours.
The country has introduced new rules including the compulsory wearing of face masks by schoolchildren during lessons, while Johnson resisted cracking down on social gatherings in England over the festive period.
The massive number of people testing positive or in self-isolation has hit staff numbers in all sectors including the state-funded health service, prompting the defense ministry to announce Friday that it will send troops in 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 vaccine shots, which have already been administered to around 61 percent of the population aged over 12. It is also seeking to persuade the unvaccinated to receive jabs.
Johnson stressed that "our way out of this pandemic is for everyone to get their booster or their first or second dose if they haven't yet."
