Britain announces 269 more coronavirus deaths, the lowest daily count in six weeks

Britain has suffered another 269 coronavirus deaths, the lowest number in six weeks since March 29 (214).

A total of 31,855 have died from COVID-19 across the UK. However, there is always a decrease in daily deaths over the weekend, and the actual number is likely to actually be higher due to a delay in collecting death certificates.

The ray of hope comes as Prime Minister Boris Johnson prepares to formally announce the next stage of the closure at 7 p.m. from this night.

Limits on outdoor activities are expected to be among the first things to relax from tomorrow, but government ministers have insisted that there will be no major changes.

Downing Street has attempted today to defend the decision to get rid of the “stay home, protect the NHS, save lives slogan” blanket for an ambiguous “stay alert, control the virus and save lives.”

The softer approach has already sparked a backlash with leaders in Scotland and Wales refusing to abandon the family’s “stay home” strategy.

It comes amid scientists’ warnings that thousands more lives will be lost in the pandemic. A study estimates that 100,000 Britons could be lost to the deadly infection by the end of the year if the crisis is not controlled.

And a separate study estimates that 700,000 people will die in Britain as a result of the COVID-19 and the blockade. measures used to control it, more than in World War II.

On another crucial day in the all-consuming crisis:

• Johnson is expected to confirm that garden centers will be able to open as of Wednesday and will issue guidelines for working safer in offices, but tougher fines of up to £ 3,000 for non-compliance with the rules;
• Airports and travel companies reacted furiously to plans to impose a two-week quarantine on anyone arriving in the country, including UK citizens returning from vacation;
• The ministers expressed suspicions that political opponents and union tycoons were colluding to block the reopening of schools until wage demands were met, in a group they described as “The Blob”;
• A survey found that the British believe that the government has handled the crisis worse than other important countries, apart from the United States;
• Jenrick revealed that 40 percent of Isle of Wight residents, about 50,000 people, have downloaded the NHS coronavirus tracking app in the first week;
• Statistical professor David Speigelhalter has called the use of government figures “shameful,” saying the test numbers were misrepresented and the public was not treated with “respect.”

The government revealed that nearly 4,000 more people were diagnosed with the deadly infection in the 24 hours to 9 a.m. on Sunday, bringing the total reported cases to 219,183.

The true size of the actual COVID-19 outbreak in Britain remains a mystery due to the controversial decision by ministers to abandon mass testing early in the crisis.

The number of daily coronavirus tests fell below Health Secretary Matt Hancock’s 100,000 target for the eighth consecutive day on May 9.

The Department of Health and Social Assistance said 92,837 tests were performed in the 24 hours at 9 am Sunday, of which thousands were repeated tests, down from 96,878 the day before and 97,029 on May 7.

The daily death count of 269 is not broken down to show how many occurred in different settings, such as hospitals or nursing homes.

But at least 178 of today’s deaths occurred definitively in hospitals in England because NHS England reveals new deaths recorded by the trusts every afternoon.

Of these, 148 occurred in the past three days. The rest dates back to March 17. It brings the total number to 23,149 in hospitals only.

The patients ranged in age from 32 to 98 years. Twelve of the patients, aged 58 to 95 years, had no known underlying health conditions.

All countries of origin except England add deaths in all settings, including nursing homes, to their overall count, announced in the afternoon.

Scotland revealed 10 other deaths, and 12 more people died in Wales along with five in Northern Ireland.

Britain now has the second highest number of deaths in the world, after the US. USA, where 79,700 people have succumbed to the virus that causes pneumonia.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson will address the nation tonight at 7pm and is expected to unveil a new DefCon-style five-stage system to describe the country’s outbreak condition.

The focus will be on making businesses work, with a detailed guide for companies on how they should operate, and garden centers will be able to open Wednesday with social distancing measures.

Buyers could be encouraged to wear face covers, as has already been the case in Scotland.

Violations of the more nuanced rules could be imposed with more severe fines.

Plans are being drawn up to use ‘peer pressure’ to get people to isolate themselves, as those who test positive will be asked to contact anyone they’ve infected.

But before the prime minister’s speech, he has already been forced to defend his ‘exit plan’ amid a backlash by dropping the powerful slogan ‘stay home, protect the NHS, save lives’.

Instead, officials will expel a new mantra of ‘stay alert, control the virus, and save lives,’ which has sparked a backlash and caused confusion among the public.

The British scoffed at the new guide in a series of hilarious online memes, creating their own versions of the new catchphrase, such as ‘stay selfish, take care, I’m not high risk.’

Top politicians condemned getting rid of the old catchphrase that has brought the country to an effective standstill since March 23, forcing the prime minister to clarify the new advice on Twitter just hours before his 7pm speech.

Nicola Sturgeon said she had not been informed of the change and insisted that the simple guidance would remain in force in Scotland, whatever the Prime Minister says. Wales also indicated that he would still tell people to stay home.

Sturgeon, who will attend a Cobra meeting later to sign the changes, previously warned that leaving the council clear and simple will be “potentially catastrophic.”

The researchers predict that social distancing measures will be needed until December 2024 to beat COVID-19 if a vaccine is not discovered.

If Britain is plunged into recession as a result, more than 675,000 could die from the virus, poor medical care and impoverishment in the next five years, experts warn.

The study, to be published in the Scientific Journal Nanotechnology Perceptions, estimates that around 150,000 people will die of coronavirus for five years under semi-closure conditions.

Lead author Philip Thomas, professor of risk management at the University of Bristol, produced the staggering figure based on projected death rates linked to the virus, along with the economic impact of the blockade and that of previous recessions.

Professor Thomas told the Sunday Express: ‘Poverty kills as surely as coronavirus.

“ The policy of gradually breaking out of the blockade, over five years, which will be necessary to keep the infection rate close to or below 1, will reduce the cost of living for the coronavirus but will incur much greater loss of life through of the impoverishment of the nation. ”

The investigation also revealed that a slow decline in the blockade, which will help avoid pressure on the NHS due to the influx of cases, is likely to cause the economy to shrink by as much as a quarter in 2020, and the economy may not recover until 2024.

It comes after the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) received warnings that there could be 100.00 coronavirus deaths by the end of the year if the measures are relaxed too quickly.

A study by experts from the London School of Tropical Hygiene and College London modeled different approaches to “assess which were viable and which were not” and reportedly concluded that there was “very limited leeway”.

Today’s deaths mean that a total of 1,857 patients have succumbed to the virus in Scotland.

The Scottish government said 13,486 people have tested positive for the virus in Scotland, 181 more than the day before.

Public Health Wales announced that its total number of deaths is now 1,111 and infections 11,344, an increase of 223 in 24 hours.

And in Northern Ireland, the cases are 4,119, an increase of 41 in one day. Some 435 people have died from COVID-19.

Of the total of 23,150 confirmed deaths reported in hospitals in England, the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust has reported the highest number with 818.

Delays in reporting of deaths, uncounted victims who died at home or in nursing homes, and refusal to count anyone who has not been examined means that daily death counts are not the most accurate measure of how many people are being killed by the disease.

Although the total number of deaths in the UK collected by the Department of Health and Social Welfare is 31,855, the actual figure is much higher.

The Office for National Statistics says that as of April 24, there were 29,710 deaths in all settings in England and Wales that involved COVID-19.

At the time, 2,219 other people had died in Scotland, according to National Records Scotland, and 393 in Northern Ireland, according to its statistics agency, NISRA. This was a total of 32,322.

The number is 42 percent higher than the count announced by the Health Department at the time: 22,173 deaths.

If this applied to the current figures, I would suggest that more than 45,500 people had succumbed to the disease.