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Boris Johnson Photo: Reuters
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There are now more than 150,000 deaths from the new coronavirus in Britain. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on the occasion that the virus had taken a “terrible toll” in the country, DPA reported.
Reuters links the crossing of the gloomy threshold with the record number of new infections caused by omicron. The highly contagious new coronavirus variant, first identified in South Africa in late November, is already dominant in the UK.
On Saturday, the British government reported more than 146,000 new infections. Another 313 people died who tested positive for coronavirus in the last 28 days.
The death toll in Britain since the beginning of the pandemic is already 150,057. The country is seventh in the black statistics after the United States, Brazil, India, Russia, Mexico and Peru, notes DPA.
Reuters points out that Britain is second in Europe in terms of deaths after Russia. The country’s death toll per capita is 7 percent higher than the EU average, but it still lags behind the United States, Italy, Belgium and several Eastern European countries.
Confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK, with a population of 67 million, are over 14.333 million. The country ranks fourth in this indicator after the United States, India and Brazil.
The new version of omicron has caused an epidemic in the UK, although the national vaccination campaign is one of the most advanced in the world.
A scientist advising the government in the fight against the coronavirus called the death toll an “absolute tragedy”. “Many of the (deaths) could have been avoided if we had acted earlier in the first and second waves,” Professor Andrew Hayward told the BBC.
Britain’s main opposition Labor party has criticized the government’s strategy to fight the coronavirus.
However, a new opinion poll shows that the ruling Conservatives have lost some of the lead of Labor, Reuters reported. Support for the center-left party remains unchanged at 39 per cent, according to a poll published yesterday by the Upinium polling agency from January 5th to 7th. Conservatives, on the other hand, have added 2 percent to 34 percent.
The Liberal Democrats are third with 11 percent and the Green Party is fourth with 5 percent.
The next regular parliamentary elections in Britain should not be held until 2024.
However, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who won the party its largest majority in the 1987 House of Commons in December 2019, will face a test in May, when local elections will be held in much of the country. Johnson has a low rating amid a number of problems – the epidemic, but also inflation and alleged irregularities over the renovation of the prime minister’s apartment, funded by a Conservative donor.
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