By Ben Kerrigan-
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has expressed his sorrow at the loss of life arising from Covid-19, as he took “full responsibility” for the government’s actions, saying: “We truly did everything we could.” Johnson added: ”I am truly sorry for every life lost”
Mr Johnson’s sympathy for bereaved families comes following the revelation that over 100,000 people have died with Covid-19 in the UK. The ONS recorded 1,631 deaths within 28 days of a positive test were recorded in the daily figures.
Figures from the ONS, based on death certificates, revealed nearly 104,000 deaths since the pandemic began. The authenticity of death certificates associated with Covid-19 has not always been reliable after the British government admitted highly exaggerated numbers last summer.
The admission led to a revision of the Covid-19 death certificates to include only deaths that occurred within 28 deaths of a positive test.
Grim Statistic
Mr Johnson told Tuesday’s Downing Street news conference that it was “hard to compute the sorrow contained in this grim statistic”.
He gave his “deepest condolences” to those who had lost loved ones, including “fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, and the many grandparents who’ve been taken”.
Mr Johnson said the coronavirus infection rate remained “pretty forbiddingly high” despite this being the third lockdown restrictions
The prime minister plans to set out more detail in “the next few days and weeks” about “when and how we want to get things open again”. Speaking alongside the prime minister, Prof Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer, described it as a “very sad day”.
He said the number of people dying “will come down relatively slowly over the next two weeks – and will probably remain flat for a while now”.
Prof Whitty added the new coronavirus variant had changed the UK’s situation “very substantially” with infection rates “just about holding” due to lockdown restrictions.
But he said the number of people testing positive for Covid-19 in the UK “has been coming down” and the number of people in hospital with Covid has “flattened off” – including in London, the South East and East of England.
However, he added that there were “some areas” where the hospital figures were “still not convincingly reducing”, he said.