Boris Johnson 'deeply sorry' for loss of lives in the past year due to COVID-19

After Boris Johnson faced calls from a Labour MP to “apologise” for the impact of coronavirus one year on, the UK PM said that he is “deeply, deeply sorry” for the loss of lives due to the virus. According to the CambridgeshireLive, speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions, Labour’s Richard Burgon had said that a year on from the outbreak of COVID-19, it is clear that the PM dithered and delayed with deadly consequences. He added that with the worst hopefully behind, isn’t it time for them to hold up his hands and come clean with the British people and say those deaths are on him and for that he apologises. 

While replying to Burgon, Johnson said that he takes “full responsibility” for everything the government did. He added that he mourns the loss of every single coronavirus victim and sympathises deeply with their families and their loved ones. The UK MP further went on to say that he is “deeply, deeply sorry” for what happened to the country. 

Boris Johnson also added that there will be time for a full inquiry to enable the country to understand what it needed to do better when faced with such problems in the future. He even defended the government’s proposed one per cent rise for the NHS workers. He said that the government so values the “incredible contribution” of nurses over the last year and more that they want them, exceptionally of the public services, to be looked at for a pay increase at a time of real difficulty in the public finances, which he thinks people do understand. 

Citizens demand inquiry into pandemic 

The United Kingdom has Europe’s highest coronavirus death toll, which stands at over 125,900 in total. A year after the coronavirus outbreak jolted communities and medical infrastructures across the world, people in the UK also continue demanding a "public inquiry" into Britain's handling of the Covid-19 situation, right from the lockdown in March-April 2020 till date. 

Several prominent people representatives from medical, education, civil service, research, and other fraternities have now stressed that the Boris Johnson government must initiate the inquiry. President of the Royal College of Physicians in Britain Professor Andrew Goddard said that the inquiry if launched will only make people aware of the preparedness that the country needs to have to face such pandemics in the future. The inquiry he detailed must "Look at how prepared we were and the decisions we took in terms of very practical things, such as stocks of PPE, the size of the NHS workforce and how many critical care beds we have … [as well as] the greater impact of Covid-19 in the UK because of the state of public health. [sic]”.

(Image: AP)