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Associated Press

More than 100,000 people have died in Britain after contracting the coronavirus, a year into Europe’s deadliest outbreak, figures from the government showed on Tuesday.
Britain is the fifth country in the world to record 100,000 virus-related deaths, after the United States, Brazil, India and Mexico, and by far the smallest.
The US has recorded more than 400,000 Covid-19 deaths, the world’s highest total, but its population of about 330 million is about five times Britain’s.
The health department said 100,162 people have died after testing positive, including 1,631 new deaths reported on Tuesday.


Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Tuesday took “full responsibility” and expressed regret and condolences.
“I am deeply sorry for every life that has been lost and, of course, as prime minister, I take full responsibility for everything that the government has done,” he told a Downing Street news conference.
“It’s hard to compute the sorrow contained in that grim statistic,” Johnson said.
The British toll is more than twice as many people as were killed by German bombs in Britain in the 1940-41 Blitz, and 30,000 more than the total number of British civilians killed during the six years of World War II.
Coronavirus: new variant in UK might be more deadly, says Boris Johnson
The first confirmed British victim of the virus was Peter Attwood, an 84-year-old retiree who died on January 30, 2020 – though the cause was not recorded as Covid-19 until months later.
A year on, hundreds of thousands of Britons are grieving the loss of loved ones, and demanding an accounting for the terrible toll.
In part, Britain has suffered because of long-standing factors such as high levels of conditions including obesity and heart disease, a large gap between rich and poor and London’s status as a global crossroads.


But decisions during the pandemic also played a part. Johnson’s Conservative government is accused by many scientists of waiting too long to impose a lockdown in March as infections were rising exponentially. Leading epidemiologists say acting a week sooner might have cut the death toll in half.
As in other European countries, cases fell in the summer, then took off again. A more transmissible variant identified in southeast England helped push infections to new highs, and brought a new lockdown, even as a nationwide vaccination campaign began.
Johnson – who spent a week in hospital with the virus in April – has promised that a public inquiry will examine Britain’s handling of the pandemic, though he has not said when it will start.
Stop hoarding Covid-19 vaccines, South African leader tells rich nations
“Of course we will learn lessons in due course and of course there will be a time to reflect and to prepare for the next pandemic,” Johnson said last week.
The official count records people who died within 28 days of testing positive for the virus.
The full toll, as elsewhere, is likely to be even higher, due in part to missed cases early on in the pandemic.
British statistics agencies say that the number of deaths registered that mention Covid-19 on the death certificate is more than 108,000.
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse


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Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson holds a virtual press conference on the Covid-19 pandemic from 10 Downing Street on Tuesday. Photo: AFP

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epa08965538 A number of protesters are arrested by police as a small group marched through Hyde Park following an Invasion Day rally in The Domain in Sydney, Australia, 26 January 2021. Australia Day 2021 has been marked by debates about changing the date or abolishing the holiday, Australia Day honours, and whether rallies should go ahead. EPA-EFE/DEAN LEWINS AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND OUT

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World

Europe

Coronavirus


The country is the fifth in the world to pass the grim milestone, and the smallest one by far
The figure is more than twice the number of people killed by German bombs in Britain in the 1940-41 Blitz



The country is the fifth in the world to pass the grim milestone, and the smallest one by far.
