UK CORONAVIRUS OFFICIAL DEATH TOLL TIPS PAST 53,000 as Scientists Warn of a Second Wave

The UK coronavirus death toll nears 42,000 but the actual figure has just surpassed 53,000!

THE Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) have announced that a further 233 people who had tested positive for coronavirus in the UK have now sadly died.

The number of people who have died in hospitals, care homes, and the wider community after testing positive for coronavirus in the UK as of 5pm on Monday now stands at 41,969, according to the DHSC figures.

The difference in the totals is because the government figures do not include all deaths involving Covid-19 across the UK, which is thought to have passed 53,000.

The data shows there was a greater number of coronavirus-related deaths registered for the week ending June 5 in the north-west of England (250) than any other region in England and Wales. The south-east of England registered 219, and Yorkshire and the Humber had 210.

The number was down from 282 in the north-west the previous week, but this means the region has recorded the highest number of Covid-19 deaths in four of the last five weeks.

Second Covid-19 Warning by Scientists

Dozens of scientists issued two desperate pleas for the government to prevent a second wave of coronavirus in the UK.

In an open letter disseminated through the Science Media Centre as far back as June 5, more than 100 scientists from universities from across the UK, warned that the country is experiencing “one of the worst outbreaks within the context of the Covid-19 pandemic” with continued large numbers of daily infections and deaths.

They cautioned against what they describe as “a substantial relaxation of the social-distancing measures that have been in place,” including the partial reopening of schools and the retail sector in England.

“There is a very high probability that relaxation of lockdown, coupled with a potential breakdown in public trust, will bring us back into a situation where the outbreak is once again out of control,” said the signatories, which include Aris Katzourakis, professor of evolution and genomics at the University of Oxford, and David Colquhoun, professor of pharmacology at the University College London.

“If this happens all of the societal and financial sacrifices of the lockdown will have gone to waste, and we will likely experience a full-blown second wave.

“We urge the government to reconsider, and to follow the science, postponing the relaxation of lockdown,” they write, calling for an effective test, track and trace capacity, and the implementation of routine screening for high-risk key worker professions and settings to prevent asymptomatic transmission chains.