TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
COVID-19 death toll exceeds 150,000 after Omicron surge
Some 313 deaths within 28 days of a positive COVID-19 test were reported on Saturday, taking the total number of fatalities on this measure to 150,057.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
An Ambulance crew bring a patient to the Royal London hospital in London on December 28, 2021. England has been pressing ahead with its Covid-19 immunisation campaign in the race to inoculate as many people possible while the number of cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant soars. (AFP/Hollie Adams)
T
he United Kingdom's official death toll from the COVID-19 pandemic rose above 150,000 on Saturday, government figures showed, following a record wave of cases caused by the Omicron variant.
Some 313 deaths within 28 days of a positive COVID-19 test were reported on Saturday, taking the total number of fatalities on this measure to 150,057.
A broader but less timely measure of deaths with COVID-19 on the death certificate - which includes deaths early in the pandemic when testing was limited - stood at 173,248 as of the last data on Dec. 24.
"Coronavirus has taken a terrible toll on our country and today the number of deaths recorded has reached 150,000," Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a statement. "Our way out of this pandemic is for everyone to get their booster or their first or second dose if they haven't yet."
Britain has seen a surge of cases linked to the Omicron coronavirus variant in recent weeks, though death rates have been lower than during previous infection waves.
The government has focused on rolling out booster vaccinations - which have reached more than 60 percent of the population - rather than requiring a return to the lockdown measures seen earlier in the pandemic.
Some 1.227 million people tested positive for COVID-19 during the past seven days, 11 percent more than the week before, while the weekly number of deaths was up 38 percent on the week before at 1,271.
