Sat 25 April 2020:
Britain’s COVID-19 death toll passed 20,000 on Saturday in what the interior minister called “a tragic and terrible milestone” as she urged people to stay at home.
The government is facing growing criticism over its response to the new coronavirus pandemic as the death toll rises. Britain was slower to impose a lockdown than European peers and is struggling to raise its testing capacity.
The country now has the fifth-highest official coronavirus death toll in the world, after the United States, Italy, Spain and France, and scientists have said that the death rate will only start to decline quickly in another couple of weeks.
In mid-March, the government’s chief scientific adviser said keeping the death toll below 20,000 would be a “good outcome”.
The latest daily death toll of 813 hospital deaths brought the number of people who have tested positive for the illness and died in hospital to 20,319.
Interior minister Priti Patel said the country was not out of the woods yet, and pleaded with Britons to stay at home as more people start ignoring lockdown advice. Data showed car usage had started to rise this week.
“Our instruction remains clear, people should stay at home, protect the NHS (National Health Service) and save lives,” Patel told a news conference on Saturday.
“We know that people are frustrated but we are not out of danger. It is imperative that we continue to follow the rules.”
Britain’s total number of deaths is likely to be thousands higher with the addition of more comprehensive but lagging figures that include deaths in care homes. As of April 10, the hospital toll was short of the overall toll by about 40%.
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