United Kingdom reaches 50,000 COVID-19

deaths on Remembrance Day, Boris Johnson

says every death a 'tragedy'
Posted Thu 12 Nov 2020 at 5:45am , updated Thu 12 Nov 2020 at 5:59am

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been criticised for not introducing a national
lockdown sooner. (Reuters: Toby Melville)

The United Kingdom has become the first European nation to pass 50,000 coronavirus deaths, the grim
figure arriving on the same day the nation stood silent to remember its war dead.

The UK Government's official figure reached Key points:

50,365 on Wednesday — Remembrance Day —
after another 595 deaths were recorded in the
previous 24 hours, which is the highest daily tally
since 614 deaths were reported during the first
wave of the pandemic, on May 12.
A fatality is added to the UK's COVID-19 tally if
the person dies within 28 days of testing
positive.
There were also 22,950 people who tested
positive for COVID-19 in the latest daily figures,
On Wednesday the UK recorded a further
595 coronavirus deaths in the previous 24
hours, taking the nation's total to 50,365
The UK sits behind only the USA, Brazil,
India and Mexico in total deaths from
COVID-19
PM Boris Johnson warned that the UK was
not "out of the woods yet"
 up from 20,412 on Tuesday.

Their overall case count stands at 1,237,226.

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The UK currently sits fifth on the list of countries with the most deaths from coronavirus, behind the
USA, Brazil, India and Mexico.

On March 17, the Government's chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, admitted that a death toll of
20,000 people from the coronavirus outbreak would be a "good outcome" — that figure was reached just
over a month later on April 25.

"Sadly the upward trend is likely to continue and it will be several weeks before any impact of the
current measures — and the sacrifices we are all making — is seen and is reflected in the data," Yvonne
Doyle, Medical Director of Public Health England, said in a statement.

Last week Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered all of England to go into a new national lockdown that
will last until at least early December, while the devolved nations of Wales, Scotland and Northern
Ireland have all had their own forms of lockdown restrictions in place.

Non-essential shops, restaurants, bars, pubs and leisure centres will remain shut until
December 2. (AP: Alberto Pezzali)

'Not out of the woods yet'

Mr Johnson, who has been criticised for not ordering a national lockdown earlier when cases were
skyrocketing, said that every death was a "tragedy" and that "we mourn everybody who's gone".

"It is a global pandemic whose effects, whose treatments, whose implications for the economy have …
been becoming clearer and clearer as the months have gone on," he said.

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on how the pandemic is impacting the world

"I do think that we've got now to a different phase in the way that we treat it, and after these tough
autumn measures, which I hope people will stick to really, really rigidly as far as they possibly can, we're
very much hoping that two things will come to our aid."

He pointed to a mass testing trial currently underway in the north-eastern English city of Liverpool and
Tuesday's positive news regarding Pfizer's vaccine program as two huge steps forward.

"So you have a kind of, as it were, two boxing gloves to pummel the disease in the weeks and months that
follow," he said.

"But I've got to stress that we're not out of the woods yet and it does still require
everybody to follow the guidance, do the right thing to suppress the disease in
the way that we understand."

Opposition Leader Sir Kier Starmer said reaching the 50,000 figure was a "grim milestone".

"Behind these numbers is a devastated family, one for every death, and they have to be uppermost in our
mind," he said.

"The Government was slow at phase one and they haven't learned the lesson going into phase two.

"We owe it to all of the families who are grieving to get on top of the virus and head towards a vaccine
and that's what the Government must absolutely focus on now."

ABC/wires

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