As of 1st October 2020, over 1,000,000 people worldwide have died due to COVID-19, better known as the Coronavirus. This includes 42,143 in the United Kingdom. In this blog, I will go into further detail about the fatalities caused by the disease, focusing especially on the UK.
The first case of COVID-19 in China was reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) in December 2019. On 13th January 2020, a case of COVID-19 in Thailand was confirmed, the first recorded case outside of the origin country. And on 31st January 2020 – despite it later being assumed that there had been unidentified cases earlier in the country – the first COVID-19 cases in the UK were confirmed in York.
The first UK deaths from Coronavirus occurred on 5th March 2020, when a woman in her 70s and a man in his 80s died in Southern England. On 12th March, the UK raised the risk level for the disease from moderate to high, and it was advised that anyone with a new continuous cough or a fever should self-isolate for seven days. On 16th March, Prime Minister Boris Johnson advised the British public to avoid non-essential travel and contact with others.
On 23rd March 2020 at 8:00pm, something occurred that younger people will tell their grandchildren about many years into the future. Boris Johnson announced in a television broadcast that the UK was in lockdown, with effectively no one allowed out of the house (aside for 30 minutes of exercise per day) for anything but the most essential reasons.
The single day death toll for the United Kingdom peaked on 10th April, with 980 deaths recorded. The Office of National Statistics said that coronavirus had been linked to one in five deaths during the week ending 3 April, and that more than 16,000 deaths in the UK were recorded for that week, a figure that was 6,000 higher than the average for that time of year.
Since its peak in April, the curve of deaths and cases has been flattening, although we have seen a small spike in recent days. On 30th September in the UK there were 71 deaths due to the global pandemic.
Below are the 10 countries with the most deaths due to Coronavirus as of 1st October 2020:
1. United States – 211,752
2. Brazil – 143,962
3. India – 98,708
4. Mexico – 77,646
5. UK – 42,143
6. Italy – 35,894
7. Peru – 32,463
8. France – 31,956
9. Spain – 31,791
10. Iran – 26,169
2020 has been a tough year for us all, with some finding themselves in the tragic situation of losing someone dear to them.
funeral-notices.co.uk provides a respectful environment where you can leave tributes for those who have been lost, and also place a notice of your own announcing a passing if you unfortunately need to do so.
Thank you for taking the time to read this blog, I hope you have found it insightful.
All figures taken from
www.worldometers.info/coronavirus
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