As the UK becomes Europe’s worst-hit country, Tara Pilkington is here to break down the top five things that you need to know about this latest development.
Official figures on Tuesday (5 May) reported that Britain had reached the highest death toll in Europe following the ongoing coronavirus outbreak. Here are five things that you need to know about these figures and what they mean for the government.
- The governments tally of fatalities across the UK has reached 29,427 for those who tested positive for coronavirus.
- Italy was previously Europe’s worst-hit country, recording a total of 29,029 confirmed cases.
- Data from the Office for National Statistics reported that 29,648 deaths by 2 May which had been registered in England and Wales mentioned Covid-19 on the death certificate. However, with the addition of Scotland and Northern Irelands figures, this total is predicted to rise to a total of 31,313.
- Due to missed cases and a lag in reporting, the true figure is predicted to be much higher
- Dr Claudia Paoloni, president of the Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association trade union, has called for a public enquiry as ministers have to answer for their “inadequate” handling of the crisis. She added: “There will have to be a full investigation of the [government’s] handling of the COVID response in due course – a public inquiry – to understand why we are experiencing such large numbers in comparison to the rest of Europe…It puts into question whether the government’s tactics at the start of the pandemic were sufficiently fast, and especially whether the lockdown should have happened earlier and whether we should have been better prepared with increased capacity for viral testing and contact tracing from the start. Both have proven inadequate.”
- Find the Office for National Statistics data here
