Coronavirus / Coronavirus death toll in UK doubles in 13 days, crosses 20,000-mark

The death toll due to coronavirus in the United Kingdom has risen to 20,319 after 813 new deaths were reported in the last 24 hours. The death toll in the country had crossed 10,000 on April 12. Further, a total of 5,17,836 people have been tested for the virus, out of which 1,48,377 have tested positive.

euronews : Apr 25, 2020, 10:03 PM

London: More than 20,000 people have lost their lives to COVID-19 in British hospitals, authorities announced on Saturday (April 25).

Britain's Department of Health and Social Care said that a further 813 people had succumbed to the disease over the previous day, bringing the total death toll to 20,319.

The UK is only the fifth country to pass that macabre threshold after the US, Italy, Spain, and France but the real death toll is likely to be much higher as UK authorities only report deaths observed in hospitals.

Several countries including France and Belgium include suspected COVID-19 deaths from nursing homes.

'Tragic milestone'

Home Secretary Priti Patel, who gave the government's daily press briefing on the pandemic, said "the entire nation is grieving" as the death toll reached "another tragic milestone."

She emphasized that "it is imperative that people continue to follow the rules", stressing that "the action we are collectively taking is working and your sacrifices are undoubtedly saving lives."

Regarding the government's strategy to exit the lockdown, Patel reiterated that confinement measures would only be lifted after the country meets five tests including a sustained and consistent fall in the daily death rates and infections and that "there is no risk of a second peak of infection".

Professor Stephen Powis, national medical director for NHS England, said that "the NHS has not been overwhelmed."

"We're beginning to see the benefits of that social distancing," he went on, adding that the country is beginning to see a "sustained reduction" in the number of people treated for COVID-19 in hospitals.

199,000 deaths worldwide

Elsewhere, Spain's death toll increase by 378 on Saturday to 22,902 after a slight rebound from the previous day. The number of cases, meanwhile, increased by nearly 3,00 to reach 205,905.

In Germany, the number of fatalities increased by 179 to 5,500, according to the government's Robert Koch Institute for Infectious Diseases. The country has recorded 152,438 cases so far.

More than 199,000 people have died from COVID-19 across the world, according to a tally kept by the John Hopkins University. Europe accounts for over half of the fatalities.