Britain has exceeded 150,000 deaths from the coronavirus since the start of the pandemic in the last 24 hours, according to the government. This is a symbolic limit for one of the countries most affected by the pandemic.
“Our country has paid a terrible price for the coronavirus and today the number of registered deaths has reached 150,000,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a Twitter post.
“The way out of this pandemic is for all of us to take the boost of covid-19 vaccines, or the first dose or the second, if we have not already done so,” he added.
In the previous 24 hours, 313 new deaths were recorded in Britain due to the disease, bringing to 150,057 the total number of deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.
In Europe alone, Russia (with almost 315,000 dead) has recorded more deaths than covid-19 in absolute numbers.
In another post, Johnson offered his condolences to the families and friends of the deceased, stressing that “each and every one of those who died” remains a profound loss to the families, friends and communities affected.
Britain continues to record a large number of new cases of covid-19 on a daily basis due to the highly contagious Omicron variant of the coronavirus. In the past 24 hours, 146,390 new infections were detected in the country, a high number but lower than the record of 218,724 recorded on January 4.
Although the number of patients being treated for covid-19 is currently lower than in previous pandemics (18,454), the pressure on Britain’s healthcare system is high.
According to the NHS England, on January 2, more than 39,000 absences were recorded among hospital staff – either due to infection or case of contact – a rate that increased by 59% in one week and tripled since the beginning of December.
These include more than 4,700 medical absences from London hospitals, the epicenter of the new wave of the epidemic.
The British government announced on Friday that hundreds of troops would be deployed to bolster hospitals and ambulance services.
Some 1,800 troops have already been deployed across the UK to support the covid-19 vaccination campaign and ambulance services.
Johnson is currently refusing to impose new restrictions on curbing the spread of the coronavirus – beyond teleworking and mask use – based on testing and the vaccination campaign.
To date, 82% of Britons over the age of 12 have been fully immunized against covid-19 and 35 million people (around 60% over the age of 12) have received a booster dose.
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