LONDON – After testing positive for the new coronavirus, close to 20,000 people have died in hospital in the United Kingdom. The data on Friday showed, as Britain reached a milestone it had hoped never to reach.
As the death toll rose relentlessly, speculation mounted that Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who himself spent three nights in intensive care battling COVID-19 earlier this month, would soon get back to work after U.S. President Donald Trump said he “sounded incredible” on the phone.
Once he returns, he will face the challenge of how to come out of a lockdown that is destroying swathes of the economy, while avoiding a deadly second wave of infections.
“In general, we’ll have to take decisions based on the best available scientific and health advice and it’s not going to be a case of choosing between the economy and public health,” Johnson’s spokesman said.
As the economic disaster accumulates, the government is under immense pressure to discuss how it plans to ease the lockdown in the coming days.
In the latest of a series of alarming signs, retail sales fell by the most on record in March. Even a surge in panic buying ahead of the lockdown was not enough to outweigh a plunge in sales of clothing and most other goods.
Though a string of emergency stimulus measures were in place, the budget forecasters predicted that the economy could be heading into its deepest recession in more than 300 years
The number of people who have died in hospital across the United Kingdom after testing positive for the coronavirus has risen to 19,506, up by 684 in a day.
Britain has the fifth-worst official death toll in the world, after the United States, Italy, Spain and France, and government scientists have said that the death rate will only start to decline quickly in another couple of weeks.
TESTING SETBACK
The Chief Scientific Adviser Patrick Vallance said on March 17 that Passing the 20,000 mark will be an uncomfortable moment for the government. It would be good if mark is kept under the number “a good outcome in terms of where we would hope to get”.
More comprehensive but lagging figures that include deaths in the community, such as in nursing homes, show the daily hospital toll underestimated the number of COVID-19 fatalities by around 40% as of April 10.
Johnson’s government, which was slower than European peers to impose a lockdown, has come under fire over limited testing capacity and for failing to deliver enough personal protective equipment to front-line health workers.
The latest setback saw the website for essential workers to apply for a coronavirus test shutting down on Friday just hours after the government announced that a greater range of people would now be eligible for testing. Meanwhile the Transport minister Grant Shapps, said in a coronavirus news conference, that 16,000 tests had been booked via the website before it shut down because there were no available slots left.
The government says it is on track to hit a target of 100,000 tests per day by the end of this month, but the problem with the website cast further doubt on its ability to deliver.
“There has been significant demand for booking tests today. We apologise for any inconvenience. We are continuing to rapidly increase availability. More tests will be available tomorrow,” the health ministry said.
(Photo syndicated via Reuters)