London, Nov 12: The UK has become the first country in Europe to cross the grim milestone of 50,000 COVID-19 related deaths as Prime Minister Boris Johnson said, we mourn everybody who’s gone .
As per the official figures released by the government, 1,256,725 people have tested positive for the virus after 22,950 new cases were recorded this week.
A further 595 fatalities due to the deadly viral infection on Wednesday took the death toll to 50,365, making the UK the fifth country in the world to cross the 50,000-mark after the US, Brazil, India and Mexico.
“We’re not out of the woods yet. Every death is a tragedy, we mourn everybody who’s gone and our feelings are with their families and friends, Johnson said.
“It is a global pandemic whose effects, whose treatments, whose implications for the economy, all those have been becoming clearer as the months have gone on,” he said.
The grim death toll comes as news of a possible new effective vaccine being ready by the end of the year hit the global headlines earlier this week. However, Johnson has previously warned that it is still very, very early days for the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. (PTI)