Sunday, January 09, 2022
173,000 Covid death certificates
Extreme corona death record weighs on Johnson
No country in Europe – except Russia – has such a high number of corona deaths as Great Britain: Officially it should be 150,000, but Covid already appears on more than 173,000 death certificates. The prime minister speaks of “tribute” and is fighting against new lockdown party allegations.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has expressed his sadness about the high number of corona deaths in his country. At the weekend, the number of deaths in corona infected people confirmed by means of a PCR test exceeded the 150,000 mark. Great Britain is the first country in Europe, with the exception of Russia, which has suffered so many deaths in the pandemic. “The corona virus has taken a terrible toll in our country (…),” wrote Johnson on Twitter that evening. The conservative politician expressed his condolences to the relatives of the deceased and added: “Our way out of this pandemic is that everyone gets their booster, or the first or second vaccination, if not yet.”
The actual number of corona deaths in the UK is likely to be even higher. Covid-19 has already been noted on more than 173,000 death certificates in Great Britain. The country with around 67 million inhabitants is still firmly in the grip of the omicron wave. Around 146,000 new infections were registered on Saturday alone. The number of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants within a week (seven-day incidence) was last given as 1900.
Numbers in the north of England continue to rise
While the curve in London now appears to be flattening out, the numbers in the north of England continue to rise sharply. The government in London has so far rejected stricter measures to contain the pandemic in most of England, citing the fact that hospital admissions and deaths have not increased to the same extent. However, more and more hospital operators are sounding the alarm because they are increasingly lacking staff due to the many cases of infection.
Meanwhile, the Johnson administration continues to face criticism for allegedly disregarding its own lockdown rules. Former Johnson’s chief advisor Dominic Cummings added fuel to the fire. According to him, a senior government official had emailed 10 Downing Street for drinks in the garden of the government headquarters in May 2020. Warnings that it was a violation of the lockdown rules in force at the time had been ignored, wrote Cummings, who left the government in the dispute, in a blog entry on Friday. At the end of last year, Johnson came under considerable pressure over reports of lockdown parties at the seat of government. An internal investigation is currently to clarify whether the corona rules were violated. The focus is on reports about parties in December 2020.