UK shadows Italy as worst hit in Europe: virus death toll passes 28,000

[rooster59]

UK shadows Italy as worst hit in Europe: virus death toll passes 28,000

By Guy Faulconbridge and Costas Pitas

 

Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick speaks during a daily news conference to update on the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, at 10 Downing Street in London, Britain May 2, 2020. Andrew Parsons/10 Downing Street/Handout via REUTERS

 

LONDON (Reuters) - The United Kingdom's COVID-19 death toll rose 621 to 28,131 as of May 1, just short of Italy which has so far had the world's second most deadly outbreak of the disease after the United States.

 

As Britain shadows Italy for the grim status of being the worst hit country in Europe, Prime Minister Boris Johnson is facing criticism from opposition parties who say his government stumbled in the early stages of the outbreak.

 

Housing minister Robert Jenrick gave the latest UK figures at a Downing Street briefing on Saturday.

 

The United States has had 64,740 deaths, followed by Italy with 28,710 and the United Kingdom on 28,131 and then Spain on 25,100, according to a Reuters tally.

 

Italy, which has a population of 60 million, said its death toll rose 474 as of Saturday. The United Kingdom has a population of about 67 million.

 

Johnson, 55, initially resisted introducing a lockdown to restrict economic and public activity, but changed course when projections showed a quarter of a million people could die.

 

Johnson himself battled COVID-19 last month, spending three days in intensive care. He returned to work on Monday, telling the nation that people around the world were looking at the United Kingdom's "apparent success".

 

TESTS FOR EASING LOCKDOWN

 

He has said the country is over the peak but that it is still to early to relax the lockdown he imposed on March 23 because there could be a second peak that he fears might overwhelm hospitals.

 

The $3.0 trillion British economy, the world's fifth largest, is stalling and Johnson is due next week to present a possible way to get the country back to work without triggering a second spike in cases.

 

He has set five tests that must be met before he can lift the lockdown - with a reduction in the daily death toll and prevention of a second deadly peak among the key ones.

 

Government scientists say that while the daily death tolls show a downward trend they expect them to plateau for a while.

 

(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge and Costas Pitas)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-05-03

 

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[stevenl]

People are looking at the UK's apparent success? What success would that be?

[nickmondo]

The UK Government and their medical advisors screwed it up right from the start.

Even now they have zero believability when they speak to the nation.

They need to get a grip of it, and start asking Asia for advice, because clearly they dont have a clue.

They still do not think that wearing masks makes much of a difference!  Muppets

Glad I got out of EU when I did and came back here before the lockdown

[Rookiescot]

Real figures probably much higher sadly. The UK government has lost what little credibility it had prior to this CV19 crisis.

They have now also lied about how many tests are being carried out daily by including those which have not actually been tested.

How can anyone consider Johnson to be fit to be PM of the UK?

[Mavideol]

4 hours ago, rooster59 said:

Johnson, 55, initially resisted introducing a lockdown to restrict economic and public activity,

that will follow him like a shadow and that's why he can't look at the mirror..., bad, very bad decision BJ

[Mavideol]

1 minute ago, Rookiescot said:

Real figures probably much higher sadly. The UK government has lost what little credibility it had prior to this CV19 crisis.

They have now also lied about how many tests are being carried out daily by including those which have not actually been tested.

How can anyone consider Johnson to be fit to be PM of the UK?

I was writing the same question on my post when I realized that you beat me to it, great question though... if he had any 00's he would resign, thanks to his & cummings stupxx decision many, many UK citizens dead

[RichardColeman]

Actually, I am more bolstered by this than critical. The fact that we are actually reporting high numbers means we are being far more honest about our numbers than many other countries. Besides we are older and fatter than many other countries so have more high risk.

 

Best thing that came out of the meeting yesterday was reporters starting to ask of we will ask China for reparations, which as expected got little response

 

[Kadilo]

3 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

Actually, I am more bolstered by this than critical. The fact that we are actually reporting high numbers means we are being far more honest about our numbers than many other countries. Besides we are older and fatter than many other countries so have more high risk.

 

 

Yes this seems to be the Governments latest get out of jail card they are playing. The only very recently started disclosing the full amount of deaths to include care homes and not just hospitals due to public pressure. 

As for the testing, they miraculously went from 40 odd thousand a day on the 29th to 100,000 on the deadline day to save face.......and we talk about the Thais...lol. Then when asked by one of the more astute journalists disclosed that many thousands of these were those that had just been sent out and would take days for results to return. They must think we are mugs. 
 

Even during these times they can’t stop lying, and now we are to believe the numbers are higher because we are being more honest. Couldn’t be further from the truth. 
 

Johnson has been cut a lot of slack due to his own health scare but that goodwill is running out quickly and people are now starting to analyse some of the poor decisions his Government made in the early days and calling him out. 
 

30 million raised by one old war veteran alone for the NHS but we still can’t supply our them with the right PPE and they continue to die.
 

They don’t want clapping every week Boris they want protecting.  
 

Edited May 3, 2020 by metisdead
Please do not modify someone else's post in your quoted reply, either with font or color changes or wording.

[rasmus5150]

50 minutes ago, RichardColeman said:

Best thing that came out of the meeting yesterday was reporters starting to ask of we will ask China for reparations, which as expected got little response

Every country is shaking in their boots regarding this question.

Now is the time the rest of the world should stand together (EU or not), and show we will not be bullied by CCP no more.

But unfortunately in such an economic crisis, everybody is depending on CCP for their <deleted> products.

[stevenl]

1 hour ago, RichardColeman said:

Actually, I am more bolstered by this than critical. The fact that we are actually reporting high numbers means we are being far more honest about our numbers than many other countries. Besides we are older and fatter than many other countries so have more high risk.

 

Best thing that came out of the meeting yesterday was reporters starting to ask of we will ask China for reparations, which as expected got little response

 

We are posting higher numbers because we are more honest, seriously?

 

Looks much more likely to be: we are posting higher numbers because we have higher numbers.

[phantomfiddler]

The world seems full of a repugnant form of humans called "Second guessers" ! Whoever has to make any form of decision, they are damned if the do, and damned if they don,t ???? 

Wouldn,t it be a wonderful world if we were all more constructive ????

[sungod]

2 hours ago, Kadilo said:

 but we still can’t supply our them with the right PPE and they continue to die.

 

 

Ridiculous argument, there is a shortage world wide.

[Baerboxer]

3 hours ago, Rookiescot said:

Real figures probably much higher sadly. The UK government has lost what little credibility it had prior to this CV19 crisis.

They have now also lied about how many tests are being carried out daily by including those which have not actually been tested.

How can anyone consider Johnson to be fit to be PM of the UK?

 

Unfortunately the choices other than BJ were even less fit to be PM. Sad state of affairs, but there we are.

 

Bit like the Americans being given the choice of Trump or Clinton; and likely choice of Trump or Biden.

 

Many choose the least worst.

[Baerboxer]

19 minutes ago, Jonnapat said:

Difficult to choose between the UK and the USA as to has performed the worst during the past few months.

We can surely say that lack of common sense leadership has been the major factor in both countries.

 

France, Spain, Italy haven't performed any better. Others have but perhaps more by luck than design. Good old Belgium has the worst performance pro rata to population. 

 

Russia and China are certainly being less than truthful. 

 

It does seem to show all the vaunted Western first world wonders aren't as clever as they thought; or perhaps it's their governments that have been conning citizens into believing they were.

[puipuitom]

8 minutes ago, sungod said:

Ridiculous argument, there is a shortage world wide.

Shortage worldwide: maybe, especially for those, who cannot pay. The Chinese produce 200 MILLION face masks a DAY. Only.. know what you want to have ( "civil" or "medic", which standard, CE and /of FDA certified) , and bing money with you ( as waiting for 2 months for payment means the manufacturer has unsufficient finances to continue production ) . This aside of Indian, Vietnamese and Thai production.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1244333647458643970 Indian and Chinese mask production ( OK, a "some" propaganda) 

[Kadilo]

39 minutes ago, sungod said:

Ridiculous argument, there is a shortage world wide.

The UK was slow to react and left behind hence the supply issue. Then we have supplies sitting on planes at airports. 

 

Added to that the low spec advised which has since been upgraded since so many nurses and doctors died. 

 

Another PR  own goal Johnson giving the Sun on Sunday an exclusive about how close he came to death. We have heard enough about your experience already. 

 

For many front line line workers they will never get to to tell their story sadly. 

 

Now we have Hancock saying masks do nothing one day and Boris saying they may be “useful” the next. 

 

Just be honest. You didn’t want people wearing them cos you ain’t got enough to give the NHS let alone the public. 

 

 

 

Edited May 3, 2020 by Kadilo

[stevenl]

17 minutes ago, puipuitom said:

Shortage worldwide: maybe, especially for those, who cannot pay. The Chinese produce 200 MILLION face masks a DAY. Only.. know what you want to have ( "civil" or "medic", which standard, CE and /of FDA certified) , and bing money with you ( as waiting for 2 months for payment means the manufacturer has unsufficient finances to continue production ) . This aside of Indian, Vietnamese and Thai production.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1244333647458643970 Indian and Chinese mask production ( OK, a "some" propaganda) 

And despite British garment industry begging for PPE orders.

[Chomper Higgot]

4 hours ago, Mavideol said:

that will follow him like a shadow and that's why he can't look at the mirror..., bad, very bad decision BJ

The only problem Johnson has with his failed herd immunity experiment is that Imperial College London and 250 Scientists exposed the callous idiocy for what it was.

 

Had they not done so Johnson would have done nothing to impede the spread of the disease.

[metisdead]

A "But but but" troll post has been removed.

 

Some off topic posts about the USA have been removed as this topic is about:

 

 UK shadows Italy as worst hit in Europe: virus death toll passes 28,000

[puipuitom]

1 hour ago, stevenl said:

We are posting higher numbers because we are more honest, seriously?

Looks much more likely to be: we are posting higher numbers because we have higher numbers.

Look at little Belgium, probably the only, who is honest to their people: publish those, who died in a hospital, after being tested for corona, those, who died in medical care houses nearly for sure because of corona and those who died elsewhere (at home etc). 

I never forget: 70 in hospital, 170 in care homes, 2 elsewhere...

Or: 7844 total, 3594 (=45,8%) in hospitals, 4164 ( = 53,1%) in care homes. And YOU think, the Belgians are a special spieces of humans, with a different response to covid-`19 ? Or the real number of casualties in many EU states is the double ? Remind: tranquilize your voters !

 

https://www.demorgen.be/voor-u-uitgelegd/coronavirus-in-cijfers-en-kaarten-het-aantal-besmettingen-doden-en-genezen-patienten~b5875c3f/

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/coronavirus-belgium-death-toll-lockdown-trump-who-uk-spain-italy-a9494186.html

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-52491210

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/belgium/

 

The other state, who organised it well = Germany.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/germany/

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/world/europe/germany-coronavirus-cases.html

[puipuitom]

18 minutes ago, stevenl said:

And despite British garment industry begging for PPE orders.

Same as in many European countries. Stupidity, ignorance, incompetence, government work...

[Mavideol]

25 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

The only problem Johnson has with his failed herd immunity experiment is that Imperial College London and 250 Scientists exposed the callous idiocy for what it was.

 

Had they not done so Johnson would have done nothing to impede the spread of the disease.

I said it before and going to say it one more time, the guy is unfit for the job period, same copy cat on the other side of the Atlantic, both completely, utterly unfit

[Logosone]

4 hours ago, Rookiescot said:

Real figures probably much higher sadly. The UK government has lost what little credibility it had prior to this CV19 crisis.

They have now also lied about how many tests are being carried out daily by including those which have not actually been tested.

How can anyone consider Johnson to be fit to be PM of the UK?

The former head of the Office of National Statistics has compared the average mortality figures of the last few years with current numbers and has concluded that the real number of UK Covid19 deaths could be as high as 45000.

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8280057/Statistician-estimates-double-government-figure-adjusting-excess-deaths.html

[Traubert]

That didnt stay on the UK very long., admirable though Belgium is.

 

Dominic wont be happy until few more pensioners are off the books.

 

That's the top and bottom of it.

 

 

[Thingamabob]

4 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

Actually, I am more bolstered by this than critical. The fact that we are actually reporting high numbers means we are being far more honest about our numbers than many other countries. Besides we are older and fatter than many other countries so have more high risk.

 

Best thing that came out of the meeting yesterday was reporters starting to ask of we will ask China for reparations, which as expected got little response

 

Yes indeed. There are a number of questions being raised by the numbers. UK death certificates are way over the top in stating Carona as cause of death. Left wing BMA are pushing this policy for purely political reasons.

[edwinchester]

3 hours ago, phantomfiddler said:

The world seems full of a repugnant form of humans called "Second guessers" ! Whoever has to make any form of decision, they are damned if the do, and damned if they don,t ???? 

Wouldn,t it be a wonderful world if we were all more constructive ????

The truth is not repugnant. The Tory Govt ignored their own committees report that the UK was woefully unprepared for such a pandemic as this four years ago, Boris Johnson skipped 5 COBRA meetings this year at the beginning of the crisis abroad leaving a leadership vacuum and lack of urgency in his own Cabinet, the Tories declined to do anything regards lockdown, curtailing travel, testing etc despite the overwhelming evidence coming in from abroad of those countries experiencing the pandemic earlier than the UK.

The Tories are directly responsible for thousands of uneccessary deaths and must be held responsible for their multiple failures and neglect of duty to protect the public and their own workers.

[stevenl]

1 hour ago, Thingamabob said:

Yes indeed. There are a number of questions being raised by the numbers. UK death certificates are way over the top in stating Carona as cause of death. Left wing BMA are pushing this policy for purely political reasons.

See post #23. You're wrong.

[CG1 Blue]

6 hours ago, Mavideol said:

I was writing the same question on my post when I realized that you beat me to it, great question though... if he had any 00's he would resign, thanks to his & cummings stupxx decision many, many UK citizens dead

Cummings is reported to have been pushing the SAGE committee members for an earlier lockdown. It was SAGE that actually insisted on a delay to the lockdown. 

 

Johnson’s Top Aide Pushed Scientists to Back U.K. Lockdown

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-28/top-aide-to-u-k-s-johnson-pushed-scientists-to-back-lockdown

 

[CG1 Blue]

2 hours ago, Logosone said:

The former head of the Office of National Statistics has compared the average mortality figures of the last few years with current numbers and has concluded that the real number of UK Covid19 deaths could be as high as 45000.

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8280057/Statistician-estimates-double-government-figure-adjusting-excess-deaths.html

Presumably the same could apply to most other countries then, not just the UK. 

[tribalfusion001]

The real figures could also be less as the people who died at home or in care homes in most cases were not tested for covid-19, they were "suspected" covid-19 cases. They have only just hit their target of 100,000+ tests per day. I know a friend who works in care home for people with mental problems and he has only just been tested, not sure about the inmates.

 

UK government policy was only to test if you were admitted to hospital, so the ones who died at home or in care homes probably did not need an ICU bed or ventilator.

 

Figures can be massaged higher or lower to suit the official narrative.

Edited May 3, 2020 by tribalfusion001