More than 100,000 people in the UK have died after catching coronavirus, as the toll of a second wave sweeping across the country continues to be felt.
A further 1,631 people were reported to have died within 28 days of testing positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday, taking the total number to 100,162 since the start of the pandemic.
The government figures were released after the Office for National Statistics (ONS) - which uses a different counting method - this morning said the number had already passed 100,000.
Another 20,089 people tested positive for the virus on Tuesday, which is the lowest daily rise in cases so far this year.
On 11 November 2020, the UK had recorded 50,000 deaths with COVID-19.
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It has taken just 76 days for that figure to double.
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MANCHESTER, - MARCH 26: A giant television over the A57 Motorway urges people to stay home on March 26, 2020 in Manchester, England. British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, announced strict lockdown measures urging people to stay at home and only leave the house for basic food shopping, exercise once a day and essential travel to and from work. The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has spread to at least 182 countries, claiming over 10,000 lives and infecting hundreds of thousands more. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
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People were told to 'stay at home' to save lives
Almost all of the UK is currently in lockdown to prevent the NHS being overwhelmed - nearly a year since the first official case of coronavirus community transmission was discovered.
Two people in York were found on 31 January 2020 to have the disease, about which little was known publicly apart from that it originated in Wuhan, China.
But that was just the beginning of a slow growth in officially-recognised infections as testing capacity battled to match demand.
On 17 March, the government's chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance said keeping the number of deaths under 20,000 would be a "good outcome".
There were unprecedented interventions as people were told to "stay at home", the Queen issued a rare national address and Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned: "Many more families are going to lose loved ones before their time."
The Queen issued a rare national address in April
But questions were already being asked about whether lockdown had come too late.
Mass gatherings, including a Stereophonics concert, the Cheltenham Festival and a Liverpool versus Atletico football game held on Merseyside, all prompted concern about how the virus spread so quickly.
And it was revealed Mr Johnson missed five meetings of COBRA - the government's emergency response committee - before March.
In the weeks ahead, the UK hit its first peak of daily deaths - 1,073 - on 8 April and then cases - 4,825 - on 21 April, with the prime minister himself catching the virus and being treated in intensive care.
Boris Johnson caught COVID-19 during the first peak
Reports of personal protective equipment shortages also broke out, with health workers warning they did not have adequate equipment to treat patients - particularly in care homes.
And the prime minister's top adviser Dominic Cummings was found to have potentially breached lockdown rules after travelling to his parents' farm in Durham with his wife and young child - and then driving to Barnard Castle to apparently test his eyesight.
In the summer, "travel corridors" were introduced to force anyone arriving in the UK to quarantine, unless they came from a list of exempt countries.
Face coverings also started to be required in some public places, and Mr Johnson told people working from home they should start going back to the office.
A paramedic outside the Royal London Hospital
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Cases began rising rapidly again in the autumn
Then as autumn arrived, cases began shooting up again - rising above 2,000 a day on 1 September for the first time since May.
What was once a national approach began to fragment, with the creation of tiers and different nations in the UK taking different approaches - Wales notably entering a "firebreak" while Mr Johnson was defying calls for similar action in England.
But he then decided to order a second national lockdown for November, which saw a dip in cases and deaths that quickly reversed as soon as it lifted.
Hopes for a vaccine were boosted with the medicines regulatory approving first the Pfizer/ BioNTech jab, then the Oxford University/ AstraZeneca one, and finally Moderna.
But when new year arrived, all four nations of the UK ordered another lockdown. Uncertainty remains over how long it will last.
So the next time anyone thinks of breaking the rules just remember that number.
RIP To the 100.000.
Over 100.000 People Now Gone
posted on 27/1/21
comment by Sir Tottenham of Hotspur (U17379)
posted 2 hours, 55 minutes ago
comment by Automatic For The People (U21889)
posted 2 minutes ago
comment by Sir Tottenham of Hotspur (U17379)
posted 1 minute ago
Just to play devils advocate, has anyone considered the possibility that we are the highest death toll because we are testing at a higher magnification, and reporting deaths differently than other countries?
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No, it’s because we have a criminally incompetent government who have got it wrong every step of the way, and continue to do so.
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Certainly part of it, but I fail to believe we are doing things so drastically different in policy ....I mean look at Sweden who didn’t even lockdown. And Japan
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Look at New Zealand and the countries in South Asia.
posted on 27/1/21
100
thousand deaths
posted on 27/1/21
comment by PhendomBALLER (U20037)
posted 11 minutes ago
100
thousand deaths
----------------------------------------------------------------------
So far.
posted on 27/1/21
comment by Sir Tottenham of Hotspur (U17379)
posted 3 hours, 18 minutes ago
comment by Automatic For The People (U21889)
posted 2 minutes ago
comment by Sir Tottenham of Hotspur (U17379)
posted 1 minute ago
Just to play devils advocate, has anyone considered the possibility that we are the highest death toll because we are testing at a higher magnification, and reporting deaths differently than other countries?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
No, it’s because we have a criminally incompetent government who have got it wrong every step of the way, and continue to do so.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Certainly part of it, but I fail to believe we are doing things so drastically different in policy ....I mean look at Sweden who didn’t even lockdown. And Japan
----------------------------------------------------------------------
It's easy to compare us with any other country in the world and say we have a crap government bla bla bla but there are a multitude of reasons we are so badly affected, importantly the fact that the new Kent variant (we can't call it the China flu why?) has been incredibly infectious meaning we've had different challenges to others, we also don't exactly have the most law abiding public and live in an exceptionally dense country in southern England especially with cold damp winters.
posted on 27/1/21
comment by #nerfthedmr (U3979)
posted 5 minutes ago
comment by Sir Tottenham of Hotspur (U17379)
posted 3 hours, 18 minutes ago
comment by Automatic For The People (U21889)
posted 2 minutes ago
comment by Sir Tottenham of Hotspur (U17379)
posted 1 minute ago
Just to play devils advocate, has anyone considered the possibility that we are the highest death toll because we are testing at a higher magnification, and reporting deaths differently than other countries?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
No, it’s because we have a criminally incompetent government who have got it wrong every step of the way, and continue to do so.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Certainly part of it, but I fail to believe we are doing things so drastically different in policy ....I mean look at Sweden who didn’t even lockdown. And Japan
----------------------------------------------------------------------
It's easy to compare us with any other country in the world and say we have a crap government bla bla bla but there are a multitude of reasons we are so badly affected, importantly the fact that the new Kent variant (we can't call it the China flu why?) has been incredibly infectious meaning we've had different challenges to others, we also don't exactly have the most law abiding public and live in an exceptionally dense country in southern England especially with cold damp winters.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
This. It's no use saying 'New Zealand are better', it's meaningless without context.
Sweden have done terribly compared to their neighbours in Scandinavia.
posted on 27/1/21
comment by Bãles left boot (U22081)
posted 14 seconds ago
comment by #nerfthedmr (U3979)
posted 5 minutes ago
comment by Sir Tottenham of Hotspur (U17379)
posted 3 hours, 18 minutes ago
comment by Automatic For The People (U21889)
posted 2 minutes ago
comment by Sir Tottenham of Hotspur (U17379)
posted 1 minute ago
Just to play devils advocate, has anyone considered the possibility that we are the highest death toll because we are testing at a higher magnification, and reporting deaths differently than other countries?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
No, it’s because we have a criminally incompetent government who have got it wrong every step of the way, and continue to do so.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Certainly part of it, but I fail to believe we are doing things so drastically different in policy ....I mean look at Sweden who didn’t even lockdown. And Japan
----------------------------------------------------------------------
It's easy to compare us with any other country in the world and say we have a crap government bla bla bla but there are a multitude of reasons we are so badly affected, importantly the fact that the new Kent variant (we can't call it the China flu why?) has been incredibly infectious meaning we've had different challenges to others, we also don't exactly have the most law abiding public and live in an exceptionally dense country in southern England especially with cold damp winters.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
This. It's no use saying 'New Zealand are better', it's meaningless without context.
Sweden have done terribly compared to their neighbours in Scandinavia.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
New Zealand has about a 20th of our population.
posted on 27/1/21
comment by Sir Tottenham of Hotspur (U17379)
posted 3 hours, 35 minutes ago
Just to play devils advocate, has anyone considered the possibility that we are the highest death toll because we are testing at a higher magnification, and reporting deaths differently than other countries?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I get what you're saying, and I totally agree the test numbers are inflated. You're not ending up in hospital because of a false positive, though.
Obviously there will be a certain percentage of deaths wrongly attributed to Covid, but I don't think it's to an extent that it's misrepresenting how bad it is. I know a couple of people who have physical jobs that struggle these days because of 'long covid'.
posted on 27/1/21
https://twitter.com/Okeating/status/1354172502826741760
posted on 27/1/21
posted on 27/1/21