The UK has today announced another 621 coronavirus deaths, taking Britain’s official fatality toll to 28,131 – edging the country closer to becoming the second-worst hit nation in the world.
The new figures, put out by the Department of Health and Social Care on Saturday, came as local government secretary Robert Jenrick said 1,129,907 coronavirus tests had been carried out in the UK, including 105,937 on Friday.
Officials also recorded another 4,806 cases, with more than 180,000 Britons having now been infected since the crisis hit the UK in February – but a lack of testing means potentially millions of cases have been missed.
It means the UK is just short of Italy’s coronavirus death toll, which stands at 28,236, making it the worst affected country in Europe and second to only the US in the world
Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick revealed the figures, which include fatalities in all settings, including care homes, in tonight’s Downing Street press conference.
A quarter of a million deaths.
The global coronavirus death toll is approaching the 250,000 mark, an AFP tally indicates. The disease that has threatened to bring the global economy to a standstill has infected more than 3.3 million people worldwide.
#BREAKING More than 240,000 coronavirus deaths worldwide: AFP tally pic.twitter.com/Cej5aj3Wp8
— AFP news agency (@AFP) May 2, 2020
These are not just figures these numbers represents another 250,000 people, people with lives, loved ones and families, lost to virus that at this time shows no real signs of receding.
People talk about returning to normal, for the millions that represent the families of people lost to Coronavirus there will never be a return to normal, normal does not exist anymore.
For the world in general, we will all have to create a new normal. In that very statement there lies a great danger. A danger were our liberties maybe sacrificed. One where our lives families, communities are changed, even the way we interact with people will never return to the old normal. Health and safety may be the alter we sacrifice our freedoms upon.
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