Prime Minister Boris Johnson has offered his condolences to the families of the more than 100,000 people in the 海角视频 who have died with Covid-19.
Boris Johnson was joined by England's chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty and NHS England boss Sir Simon Stevens for a live 5pm briefing from 10 Downing Street today.
The Prime Minister said it was "hard to compute the sorrow contained in that grim statistic” of the Government’s figure for coronavirus deaths having passed 100,000.
He said: “I’m sorry to have to tell you that today the number of deaths recorded from Covid in the 海角视频 has surpassed 100,000.
“It’s hard to compute the sorrow contained in that grim statistic: The years of life lost, the family gatherings not attended and for so many relatives the missed chance to even say goodbye.”
He added: “I offer my deepest condolences to everyone who’s lost a loved one: fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, and the many grandparents who have been taken.
“To all those who grieve, we make this pledge: that when we come through this crisis we will come together as a nation to remember everyone we lost and to honour the selfless heroism of all those on the front line who gave their lives to save others.
“We will remember the courage of countless working people, not just our amazing NHS and care workers, but shop workers, transport staff, pharmacists, teachers, police, armed forces, emergency services, and many others who kept our country going during our biggest crisis since the Second World War.
Most Read
“We will commemorate the small acts of kindness – the spirit of volunteering and the daily sacrifice of millions who placed their lives on hold, time and again, as we fought each new wave of the virus, buying time for our brilliant scientists to come to our aid.
“In that moment of commemoration, we will celebrate the genius and perseverance of those who discovered the vaccines.
“And the immense national effort, never seen before in our history, which is now under way to distribute them, one that has now seen us immunise over 6.8 million people across the United Kingdom.
“When those vaccines have finally freed us from this virus and put us on a path to recovery, we will make sure we learn the lessons and reflect and prepare.
“Until that time, the best and most important thing we can all do to honour the memory of those who have died is to work together with ever greater resolve to defeat this disease. And that is what we will do.”
Earlier today there were discussions about new proposals around travel, which include forcing passengers arriving in England from Covid-19 hotspots to quarantine in hotels. The measures are designed to ensure people follow self-isolation rules and prevent the spread of the new variants found in South Africa and Brazil.
Don’t miss
Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi warned that the country needs to be 'very careful' as new strains emerge, and said an announcement on the quarantine plans would be made later.
He told Sky News: “There will be an announcement on this issue later on today, so I can only say to you that it is the right thing to do, because I am the vaccines minister, that as we vaccinate more of the adult population, if there are new variants like the South African or the Brazilian variants, we need to be very careful.
“We acted on those very quickly and of course dealt with travel from those countries, and from Portugal and elsewhere, rapidly so it is important we continue to review our border policy and an announcement will be made when a decision has been taken."