Paramedics work inside an ambulance parked in front of the Royal London Hospital in east London on 21 January 2021.
DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS | AFP | Getty Images
LONDON – The official death toll in the UK from the coronavirus pandemic reached 100,000 on Tuesday, the terrible milestone reached because a recent spike in infections continues to put pressure on hospitals and emergency services.
The latest government data showed that an additional 1,631 people died in 28 days after a positive test. To date, the UK has registered more than 3.6 million infections.
Britain was hit particularly hard by the pandemic that arose in the country almost a year ago. The first two reported Covid-19 cases occurred in the tourist city of York, in northern England, on January 31, 2020.
Now, a year later, the UK is in its third national blockade and is battling a wave of infections, and subsequent hospitalizations and deaths, caused by a more transmissible variant of the virus. First discovered in southeastern England in September 2020, the mutation has spread to London and is now responsible for most new infections in Britain. This led to a greater number of hospital admissions, putting extreme pressure on the health system.
The UK 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 with about 3.1 million cases, followed by Italy and Spain, both with about 2.5 million cases each, but the UK has a higher death toll than its European neighbors.
Experts attributed the UK’s harsh experience during the pandemic to a number of factors, including its first subsequent blockade, which meant it struggled to gain control of the rapidly spreading virus and hesitated over the next two blocks, when cases had already started to increase again after periods of relaxation. A poor test and tracking system was also a factor.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Tuesday that he takes full responsibility for everything his government has done.
“What I can say is that we really did everything we could and continue to do everything we can to minimize the loss of life and suffering,” he said at a daily news conference.
On a more positive note, the UK 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.
Having started the vaccination campaign in early December, weeks before the EU, it has already vaccinated most of its priority groups; the elderly and home health care / care workers, and is now offering the vaccine to people over 70 and anyone extremely vulnerable.
To date, it has vaccinated more than 6.8 million people with at least the first dose of a vaccine.